FIM Success Stories FIM senior consultant, Roberta Henning, leads by example! Robbie and her family moved into a brand new 4 bedroom house in Mossman. Robbie learned how to better manage her money through FIM and she now owns her home. Other participants save money for House openings and tombstones for their loved ones.
	Goals for many of our Indigenous people in the Cape may be Owning your own Home to putting a tombstone on a loved ones grave or even a fridge to put the groceries in each week
Aurukun Tombstone Opening
Scores of beds, mattresses, fridges, freezers and washing machines have been purchased from savings, which, together with establishment of nutrition and pharmacy accounts (including negotiating cashless payment systems with local retailers and pharmacist) are contributing to better physical health.
	A Lot of the Community Members are Now able To purchase A range of Whitegoods
Another aspect of saving through FIM is the increasing amount of vehicles that are being purchased. Transport is important in the Cape communities not only for transport for work it also gets them to Cairns to purchase food and clothing at discount prices. Money is saved in FIM accounts and participants either buy there car outright or use the money for a deposit. They are also thinking long term about maintenance, registration and insurance. You might say that the car represents a sense of freedom.
	FIM Has Helped Participants To Save For Cars And Opened Accounts for Extra Money To help Maintain Vehicles

The biggest success for FIM sites and the Participants is the amount of DEBT that has been paid off in the past four years. The greatest philosophy in each site is that you can’t save if you have debt hanging over your head. In each site FIM workers conduct initial interviews, in these interviews participants are encouraged to divulge debts that have been haunting them. The FIM team will then help the participant to construct a budget that will include all debts.

There have been many success stories-

Just one fantastic good news story is a mother and adult son took out a personal loan for $6000 in November of last year to furnish both of their houses. They have been paying the loan each from their Centrelink and CDEP money regularly and have cleared the loan in under a year – nice work!

There has been a range of Debt over the years to many different services these include-

• Rent Arrears to various housing bodies
• Ergon Energy Bills
• Debt Collectors for Personal Finance
• Phone bills with several different phone companies
• Shop Bills at the local stores
• Bank Loans
• School Fees these include boarding schools

The story above is a recent one and I am happy to say that apart from people receiving finance and paying it off through their FIM account. Debts seems to be a thing of the past.

Participants through the FIM program are starting to learn about controlling their debts and the feeling of hopelessness is no longer an excuse, with FIM and families. The biggest support of the FIM process is from those that are in the program and are now saving and getting their lives on track.