
KAOFELA
A chance for our beneficiaries at starting their own micro-enterprises.
Kaofela is BrainLife’s income generation and skills development programme. “Kaofela” is a Sesotho word translated as “all” or “entirety”. For BrainLife, this means “all of us together”.
KAOFELA INCOME GENERATION PROGRAMME
On the first Friday of every month, we sell all the remaining clothing, food and household items donated to BrainLife from our second-hand store. Some of these items are re-used or up-cycled and sold at informal markets.
We divide the income generated from these sales amongst our registered beneficiaries, to supplement the minimal disability grant they receive from the state.

KAOFELA MICRO-ENTERPRISES & SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
As a socio-economic and skills development programme, Kaofela aims to give our beneficiaries a chance at starting their own micro-enterprises.
Beneficiaries can volunteer to be part of the programme and earn their own income to sustain themselves.
HOW IT WORKS
Beneficiaries pair up as business partners. They usually live near to one another. BrainLife provides the partners with a “start-up” donation pack valued at R1,553. The pair is also provided with basic sales training to help them learn how to manage their micro- enterprise.
Once the micro-enterprise has recovered the R1,000 start-up cost (donated second-hand items) through sales, we encourage the owners to put 50% back into their business and to split the other 50% as income.
The revenue recieved by BrainLife is invested back into the second-hand store and used to continue the sustainability of the Kaofela programme.
The micro-enterprise owners remain beneficiaries of the BrainLife Kaofela fund and continue to receive this income in addition to the revenue from their micro-enterprises.
