“Our lives continue to be blessed by the work we do at dfree®. It is an honor we cherish greatly that God can use us for such a big mandate of helping people live in financial freedom.”
Landi and Mali, dfree® SA.
Partnerships
Karani Leadership – This is a successful black-owned company offering business and strengths coaching for entrepreneurs, and executive coaching for senior management. The partnership gave birth to the incorporation of a 4-week dfree® course in their entrepreneurs’ program.
Lucha Lunako – dfree® South Africa teamed up this prominent youth development not-for-profit organization to enhance their Financial Behavior Improvement division, drawing from the dfree® Young Money curriculum.
Pastor Debbie Bruce and the Baptist Convention of Southern Africa (BCSA) – Ps. Bruce is the vice president of the Convention who has fostered a relationship to train pastors and church leaders in the Convention. Through the partnership, train-the-trainer sessions are also held for George East Ministers Fraternity so they can in turn train other leaders to launch the dfree® program in their churches.
Challenges
In-person trainings were curtailed due to the COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions imposed by government, which limited the number of people and the duration of each gathering.
Financial constraints of participants due to the high rate of job losses in 2020/2021 meant that people had competing necessities on their stimulus income government. Internet service was not a priority on the needs list, which meant attendance was low on our virtual meetings. Sadly, those most affected were also the bracket of people highly indebted to loan sharks and retail shops.
Successes
Some notable milestones achieved by dfree® South Africa include starting savings clubs, nurturing subsistence entrepreneurs and cooperatives in underserved South African communities that have emerged. We believe in continued and extensive behavioral financial literacy research.