Create Opportunities for Rural Women to Own Land

Summary

Rural Women’s Movement teaches women their rights to own land and access resources in South Africa. RWM trains women to acquire land, learn sustainable farming and paves the way to self-sufficiency.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

Rural women are often unaware of their rights under the constitution allowing them to own land, to access communal land and other basic rights. In the KwaZulu-Natal, patriarchal attitudes are strong within Zulu culture leaving women behind the incredible changes South Africa has experienced in the last 12 years. HIV/AIDS only exacerbates women’s ability to access their rights. Women are often blamed for infecting their husbands and in some cases are evicted from their homes as a result.

How will this project solve this problem?

Rural Women’s Movement works in 14 communities in KwaZulu-Natal to secure land tenure, provide HIV positive families with access to health workers, increase women’s participation in local governance and holds sustainable agriculture trainings.

Potential Long Term Impact

By empowering women to own and use land, communities in KwaZulu-Natal become self-sufficient, vibrant and healthy. Women are leading the way to creating long-term, positive impacts on their communities. Land rights are one step towards that change.

Project Message

“…To this day, women are having difficulty accessing land in their own rights as women. They do not have independent rights to land; these rights are still attached to their spouses.”
- Sizani Ngubane, Director, Rural Women’s Movement

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources