CREATING MEANING THROUGH MICROFINANCE: THE CASE OF THE SMALL ENTERPRISE FOUNDATION

The general understanding is that the availability of microfinance is a significant poverty alleviation and empowerment strategy. Recent studies, however, have queried this idea and based on various investigative strategies, suggest the opposite. Against this background this paper investigates whether microfinance might hold meanings for its recipients other than poverty relief, and uses case data involving the Small Enterprise Foundation, a microfinance organisation operating in Limpopo Province, in the investigation. It indicates that while indeed the availability of microfinance does not necessarily imply an escape from poverty and is fraught with problems, it does introduce betterment into people's lives and has a number of 'enabling conditions' such as facilitation of self-employment, the opportunity to solve one's own problems and greater control over personal circumstances. Thus, by advancing economic conditions, microfinance simultaneously creates meaning for and promotes the development of shared values for the people concerned.