The best practices found within the communities seem to be supported by positive, mental and emotional skills such as: hope for the future, self-discipline, acceptance of responsibility and the ability to self-transcendence. These skills seem to help the participants to gradually position themselves and their families towards a better quality of life, which in turn strengthens their emotional and mental skills.

The best practices we have witnessed were predominantly depended on the collaboration of resources and efforts of friends and family members. The resources available to an individual within the research group are so restricted that on their own, their resources are not sufficient.

The most clamant unsustainable practice we have identified is the child support grant of R260 being awarded to parents who have a very low income. The grant was created with the intention of protecting a child, however the implementation of this grant had resulted in a child becoming a "commodity".

In many households the child grant is the only source of income that supports the entire family. This results in an alarming high number of teenage pregnancies, children being born out of wedlock and children who do not have a father who accepts any responsibility for them. Children are often left in the care of a grandmother while the mother collects the grant money and spends it on her own wants. Child neglect is the order of the day with children receiving insufficient nutrition, stimulation, discipline and nurturing. High levels of infection of HIV and AIDS are a direct result of this practice.

Economies of scale refer to the cost advantages that a business obtains due to expansion. Many of the income sources currently utilised by the people can only become financially viable should they be extended. For example, entry-level salaries in Mthatha for school leavers are R600. The cost of transport to the city for one month is R242 leaving R358 for the rest of the month. The child grant however is R260 per month meaning that a working female without a child is only R98 per month better off than a female without work and who receives a child grant.

Secondly, the small informal business relies heavily on the client base of their immediate community that has almost no buying power. For these businesses to survive they often illegally use electricity and other services. Expanding the client base outside of the community for these very small businesses is almost impossible due to the high cost of transport.

Lack of good role models. Due to dysfunctional family structures - the absence of a father and even at times a mother - the children grow up with limited role models. They are left to their own devices and are deprived of sufficient adult guidance and involvement.

Negative role models such as people selling drugs and alcohol were often identified as the most successful people in the community despite the fact that the participants stated that they felt that these activities were not moral and ethical. This contradiction might be because of the over emphasis on materialistic and visual indicators when making a judgement of whether an individual is successful or not.

Limited access to information sources. The participants seem to be isolated from information regarding new work opportunities, business opportunities and general information that is deemed important to their quality of life.

From our research it is evident that external factors (e.g. global economical conditions and national crime occurrence) impair the money generating ability of the participants but internal restricting factors also seem to play a significant inhibiting role.

The internal restricting factors can be summarised in two interdependent categories that relate to the chicken and egg question namely, not being able to identify which one is the cause and which one is the result. The two restricting factors are dysfunctional families and milieu impaired individuals. For generations the participants have been severely deprived with regard to education, learning, exposure and upbringing, and currently there is nothing that we could identify that is in place to holistically rectify this disability of the participants.

A dysfunctional family - such as we have come across - results in milieu impaired individuals. Milieu impaired individuals do not have the required skills to build a healthy supportive family structure on their own.

A healthy family structure is, according to the philosophy of education, the most important vehicle to install knowledge, skills, experiences and a sense of the ethical in the child (Langeveld, 1950:243; Smith, 1989a: 2,3 & Smith, 1989b: 7).

Vygotsky (Berthoud-Papandropoulou & Kilcher, 1996:173; Hedegaard, 1996: 171,172) refers to the concept of the "zone of proximal development". He states that the child can surpass his or her own capacities, within limits, through direct instructional guidance and social interaction. He further notes that when instruction creates a "zone of proximal development" it stimulates a series of inner development processes. This is a process that can unleash unexpected potential in individuals. High performing individuals can impact communities and eventually the entire country. From our research it seems that the well-being of our country is severely hampered in this regard. We cannot prosper as a country if the majority of our people cannot achieve, as Vygotsky called it, a "zone of proximal development". We cannot only aim to give the bare minimum education and guidance to our children; we need to help them, within limits, to surpass their own capacities. Regrettably, we have not even achieved the bare minimum with regard to the education and upbringing of our children in South Africa.