Our Angels mentoring team is working together with our aspiring entrepreneurs helping them become self sustainable in their small enterprises.  Now with the added Covid-19 regulations its not just teaching them the day to day skills of running a business but it is also about implementing new regulations which need to be adhered to.

However, much of the focus is on  food security, sustainability and job creation, but in-between all of that, there are always such unexpected and unintended consequences!

Here is a heartwarming story that presents so beautifully, the real rewards all Angels work for:

“Our one helper has been a heavy drinker all his life and has not been good at taking care of himself or his family” says our entrepreneur. It often shows in the deep lines on their faces and the unhealthy pallor and sour smell so common to heavy boozers.  They are often detached form the world around them.

“ His wife told me today that for the first time ever since they have been married, he didn’t take to the bottle this weekend.” He told her that he now has responsibilities and can’t spend money on booze any more and no longer wants to go to work on a Monday feeling bad and smelling like a tavern. She also told us that he wants to smell nice when coming to work and has been taking a bath every day in the old tin kom and his wife is feeling happier because he wants to move his family from the plakkerkamp – because he doesn’t want to expose her to that type of life anymore.

Chris Vermeulen. our Lead in Rural Development and Agri specialist, is also our Angels Business Mentor working on the ground assisted our aspiring entrepreneur to open his first bank account at age X  and has requested to be paid his wages fortnightly and not weekly.  Our

helper also asked for a small notebook and pen to write down his observations at work so that he can learn more and get better at it. Life for many has not been easy.  It’s been nothing but hardship and struggle, when live has been giving you lemons and sometimes in live one just needs someone to believe in you to help you to make lemonade.

“It’s with this in my heart that I go to sleep tonight and why I’m so thankful for the gift granted me, and us as Angels, to make the world a better place for all those whose paths we are privileged to cross.” Chris Vermeulen