Abalimi has been making use of the Agriplanner Board Game, developed by the South African Institute for Entrepreneurs, to train both literate and illiterate gardeners about agricultural business.  The training has been most successful, with Mrs Bokolo’s story demonstrating some of the amazing benefits of this training.

 

Mrs Bokolo, who continues to grow her own vegetables at Nolukhanyo Educare Preschool, has taken her new knowledge from the Agriplanner further than Abalimi had anticipated.  Mrs Bokolo attended the Agriplanner training in July 2005, and she says that she uses the marketing tools that she learnt from the Agriplanner training in her own bead business.  Since having done the Agriplanner training, she has gone to Claremont, Newlands and Mowbray to market her crafts herself.  Her efforts were rewarded with business contracts from two shops for which she has to produce a certain amount of crafts every month.

Through the Agriplanner training, Mrs Bokolo has learnt a number of important business skills.  These include how to reinvest money back into her business, to structure her money carefully, and that it is very important to meet deadlines for orders. 

 

As a single mother, the money that Mrs Bokolo makes from her bead business is used to send her children to school and to buy groceries and furniture for her home.