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A Fin24 user feels people are not empowered to help them avoid and escape debt situations. She writes:
Are we really doing all we can to combat poverty? I believe the mindset of society is what is fuelling poverty. Why are we not teaching people how empower themselves? You hear the word empowerment all the time but is it really being implemented?
We start our adult life without any life skills or knowledge of how to manage money; instead, we are told fairy tales and princess stories. We are not given the appropriate tools to navigate our lives effectively and we are completely unprepared for how things work in the real world.
We are taught how it should work and how we should behave, and then when things don’t work out the way the stories do, we are left feeling confused and defeated believing that there is something wrong with us.
And when you face the worst day of your life, you will quickly discover that whatever just happened was an unavoidable, inevitable fact of life and while you ungracefully recompose yourself, the whole world will conspire against you, making you feel like you were the only one that didn’t know.
I fought for an innocent man and ended up being crucified with him. We lost everything, including the love of our family and friends, and were then disregarded by our community and society.
The target of greedy partners, fraud and corruption
We were active, responsible, contributing members of society until we became the target of greedy partners, fraud, a corrupt police department and an unjust system.
We had excellent credit scores, squeaky clean records, we paid our taxes and our TV licence. As an entrepreneur my husband's company contributed to the small business sector which fuels the South African economy. I helped fuel the economy because I am a woman, and I love shoes and DIY home decor.
Despite our history and well-managed accounts, a business with a proven success rate and customers in place, we cannot get the banks, or anyone else, to lend us the R250 000 we need to buy stock to rebuild our clothing store and our lives to enable us to repay our debt.
No one was prepared to look at our figures or business plan, and our past conduct counts for nothing.
Instead of empowering us to rebuild our lives, the people who could help treated us like criminals and we began to feel like useless members of our community.
Sequestration our fate
The best option available to us now is sequestration. Our credit records are destroyed, probably for life. No debt company will help us because we are self-employed and due to the trauma, we have been slower than we would like to admit in rebuilding our lives… emotionally, financially and psychologically.
We will be okay and we will start over, but has the suffering and damage done really been necessary? No one benefits from this outcome.
People show little compassion for circumstances like ours because it is the norm. Everyone knows someone who has been through a similar ordeal. The reality is, we only talk about the success stories, no one likes to speak about the sad stories. And we wonder why everyone is so bitter and twisted.
I lost my father to suicide, just another heart-breaking hero to zero story which left a good man financially and emotionally destroyed. Another broken family.
In my opinion, this is how society breeds criminals. Desperate people do desperate and stupid things. And “the fastest way to feel significant, without any money or poor education, is through violence” - Tony Robbins.
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Disclaimer: All letters and comments published in The Debt Issue have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views are therefore their own. Fin24 cannot be held liable for any decisions made based on the advice given by Fin24 users and debt experts. Under the ECT Act and to the fullest extent possible under the applicable law, Fin24 disclaims all responsibility or liability for any damages whatsoever resulting from the use of this site in any manner.
