Member Profiles
SESHEGO BICYCLE CLUB
(Polokwane)
The youngest group to be registered under NASASA, Seshego Bicycle Club consists of members 60 members between ages 9 and 22 each contributing R20 a month.
What is the purpose of this group?
We have young people in our community who are exposed to drugs, alcohol abuse, and even gangsterism. So we formed our club because we wanted to shy away from those activities. Our main purpose is to keep the youth away from negative things through cycling.
What are your group’s goals?
Our group goal is to firstly have a cycling academy and have our own professional cycling team. As a youth club, we are individuals with different talents and passion either than cycling. We would also like to have our own big space where we can have rehearsals for dancing, drama, BMX tricks and singing.
What makes this group special?
What makes our group special is the fact that we deal with young people with the youngest member being 9 years old. And we are the only cycling club in Seshego.
[Image] “Bicycle Club 1.jpg” and “Bicycle Club 3.jpg”
Baji Ba Nama
(Welkom)
As the name suggests, Baji Ba Nama, which translates to “Meat Eaters”, is a large grocery club focused solely on buying meat. While members are part of various other groups, this group has created massive bargaining power in Welkom’s meat supply.
How many members are in this group?
We have about three branches in Welkom.
All in all, we have 120 members
How much does each member contribute every month?
We contribute R670 every month and we buy meat after six month’s contributions.
Every year, the group collects R964 800.
What are the group’s future goals?
Our group goal is to fight poverty within our families, and the only way we can do that is by helping each other through contributing money in our stokvel.
What makes this group special?
We are a very strict group, especially when it comes to uniform. That is why when a new member joins our group, we make sure uniform is being sorted out for the new member.
Our uniform is our identity and our way of showing unity within the group. And even though our group is dominated by females, we also do welcome men to join our group.
[Image] “Baji Ba Nama.jpg”
Iketleng Social Club
(Mamelodi)
Based in Mamelodi, Iketleng’s objective is saving. with 40 members each contributing a minimum of R200 a month, this group typically collects R100 000 every year.
What are the group’s future goals?
Our stokvel helps us to be disciplined when it comes to saving. Some of us are not working so the contributions help each and every individual in our group to reach their personal goals.
What makes this group special?
Most groups in our community are mainly formed by elderly people, so what makes our group special is the fact that our group consists of young individuals.
[Image] “Iketleng.jpg”
Thusanang Ka Lerato Burial Society
(Vaal)
How was the group started?
Before we started, we were just neighbours who helped each other by contributing R10 each at times when someone passed away within our community. It came to a point where we realized that the R10 was not enough as it covered just the food, and sometimes we would find that some people could not afford to have funeral policies.
How does the group operate?
There is a joining fee that you pay, then meet every month to talk about matters of the club. We then contribute the money that we have agreed upon.
60% of that money goes to the undertaker for burial purposes and the rest goes to our club account.
What would the group like to see as a benefit from NASASA?
We would like to have some sort of guidance as to how we can best manage our money because we just save our monthly. Contributions go into our club account and the rest is paid to the undertaker. Information and education on how to save money and have it work for us would be great for the club.
Lerato Women’s Club
(Sebokeng)
How was the group started?
We started as a few ladies who had different problems like money, groceries for our households and debts. It then happened that one of the ladies lost someone within her family and we were unable to help.
How does the group operate?
We have a year planner that we draft which helps us to know where meetings will be held every month as we rotate at each other’s houses. We then contribute our monthly payments. We are not just a burial society, but we also give out loans to the members
What are the group’s plans for the future?
We would like to have our own working utensils like tents, pots, gas stoves, tables, chairs etc. If we can find ourselves as a club with those things we would be very happy. This will help us because we won’t have to hire out from our club’s savings and we will save much more efficiently.
[Image] Lerato.jpg
Dobsie Ext Oldies Club
(Soweto)
How does the group operate?
When a new person wants to join, we firstly explain that the group is for elderly people. We meet 5 days a week from 8am to 9:30am. We exercise and have different activities one can partake in like soccer, netball, music and sewing, just to mention a few. Before you join any sport activity, we advise the person to go to the clinic to get checked out and see if she is fit to participate in sporting activities. There are also forms that need to be filled in from the Social Development Department. After that process has been done, the new member is then welcomed to join our club.
We are very happy with what NASASA has to offer at the moment. We entered the Sunlight competition last year and we won first prize. The money that we won helped us as a group – our whole group.
We also managed to buy ourselves soccer stuff like socks, first aid kit and soccer balls. NASASA has helped us a lot. We want to attract as many senior citizens as possible. Our main focus is health. So we want to minimize the number of elderly people that go to the clinics by helping them keep fit and adopt a healthy lifestyle.