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Starting and building a business is a lot like raising a family. It takes time, patience, constant support and consistent nurturing from infancy to maturity.

For many business owners, seeing a business that you grew from scratch struggling to survive, or even being forced to close its doors, is heartbreaking.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has sadly been the situation facing many businesses both large and small, not just in our country but around the world.

Ntsako Shipalana is not only a successful chicken farmer, she is also giving back to the industry by training others.

Shipalana, from Tzaneen in Limpopo, owns Olori Chickens, which she established in 2017.

Many girls no longer have to miss school during their menstrual cycle as they are receiving sanitary pads for free.

The growing need for affordable sanitary pads prompted Matefo Morakeng to start her own business, Dear Bella, in the Free State.

Morakeng established the company, which she named after her mother, in 2018.

Dr Perekeme Mutu has achieved what not many could even dream possible. He recently graduated with not one, but two university degrees – achieved simultaneously.

South Africans have come out out in full force to support each other, clean up and rebuild businesses that were affected by the civil unrest in July.

The country went through a difficult period recently, when many malls, shopping centres, factories, warehouses and businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng were looted. Some were even torched and burnt to the ground.

While the government and private sector were assessing the damage and putting together recovery plans, thousands of ordinary South Africans teamed up to clean up and start rebuilding what had been lost.

A Limpopo primary school principal has received global recognition.

Rathaga Primary  School principal, Dr Ngwako Sebo­petsa, recently received the Global Principal Award from India-based Alert Knowledge Service for excellence in school leadership and management skills.

Final-year nursing students have been trained to vaccinate the public against COVID-19.

The Western Cape Provincial Government has increased its efforts to roll-out the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccination programme by training final-year nursing students as vaccinators.

Mpumalanga’s Rockdale community no longer has to travel to Middelburg to access healthcare services, thanks to the opening of a state-of-the-art, 24-hour community healthcare centre.

The new healthcare centre will also ease congestion at Middleburg Hospital and other healthcare facilities in the area.

The centre was donated to Steve Tshwete Local Municipality by Seriti Power.

Mabitsela, from Modimolle in Limpopo, applied for a loan at a bank in November 2020, but was told he was over-indebted and didn’t qualify.

“I went to apply for a short-term loan as I needed to make ends meet after being retrenched in June 2020. To my surprise, I was told I did not qualify.