Heartlines Providing Lifelines
“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
Heartlines is a South African-based NGO that aims to be part of addressing some of the issues facing society by helping move people from professed positive values to lived values. Heartlines manages a variety of projects, which are theory based. Its interventions are based on best practice social change theory.
I was lucky to learn in depth about the Community Finance Education projects, run by Zamabongo Mojalefa. South Africa has one of the largest gaps between rich and poor. Heartlines reports that many South Africans are drowning in debt, unemployment levels are increasing rapidly, and people are struggling to make ends meet – let alone save. Zama shares that the values we have concerning money have a tremendous impact on our families, our communities and the nation as a whole. This project focuses on five money values:
Honesty in earning
Responsibility in spending
Wisdom in borrowing
Self-control in saving
Generosity in giving
“[Honesty] underpins all values important for a cohesive society. If we were honest, firstly with ourselves, imagine what a free life we would all live. If one cannot be honest with oneself, how can one be honest with others?”
One of the most innovative pieces of Heartlines work is the way in which it uses research before and after initiatives to promote and measure success. Research, monitoring and evaluation are important part of the work at Heartlines. They use research in all aspects of their projects, from design through to implementation.
Each project starts with extensive research. Heartlines uses research to understand social issues and to plan and develop initiatives to address these issues. The research includes literature reviews, expert opinion gathering and focus group feedback.
Heartlines also uses monitoring and evaluation to understand how effective its projects are in the real world. They do dipstick analysis and ongoing reviews once projects are underway, which helps them to strengthen and adapt their work and to make sure they are on track to meet their goals for the work. Additionally, Heartlines also partners with external monitoring and evaluation specialists to assess the impact of its work. To learn more about Heartlines, visit https://www.heartlines.org.za/home.
