Research and Innovation Project
March – April 2017
“Thobela!
In Sepedi this means “how are you?” and it is used to greet everyone, including people you meet in the street. Now I greet people in this way even here in Italy!
Our adventure at SEF in South Africa has been both a work and life experience. SEF is a leader institution in the microcredit field in South Africa. Its aim is to support the local population with small loans.
SEF’s managers guided us in this experience and gave us the opportunity to better understand the benefits the microcredit can give to local people. The objective of the research was to understand if the use of a tool called “Goal Card” would have helped clients increase their savings. The crucial point of the research occurred in Jane Furse, a small place in the South African inland. Here with the help of the translators of Sepedi (the local language) we interviewed SEF clients.
In my opinion, both South Africa and this research helped me understand deeply the power of trust. SEF trusts its clients with group loans to support them in creating individual companies and enrich its countries. The enthusiasm of people could be felt and it gave us further incentives to live fully our experience.”
Emanuele, Margherita
