Empower Rural Women & Build Skills, South Africa

A recent site visit reported back with an update from Bothas Hill with the Embo Brushware Project women’s group featured in a previous update.

Deborah, who is featured in the photos above, continues to ply her trade in diverse forms of brushes in her huge repurposed shipping container.

She has access to electricity and works at night when she gets huge orders. This is one business that continues to have huge potential. The brushes for industry and construction are in big demand. This is a business with a well established market.

Deborah has 25 years on the production side of the business. She, however, still needs support on the business marketing and management side to take her group to the next level. Because of your support, this business has the potential to employ many HIV positive and at risk women and take them out of the poverty trap.

On Tuesday, March 16, all donations up to $1,000 per donor, per project will be matched. Donate on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, and maximize your gift. International Women's Day was this week, and to celebrate amazing and strong women and girls, we wanted to tell you about all the great work going on at Hlomelikusasa as a result of your continued support. “16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women” is a campaign that runs in late November, early December. The goal is to raise awareness about violence against women. As a result of this campaign Hlomelikusasa wanted to address some of the issues that were highlighted in their communities. Violence against women is a taboo subject in rural South Africa. There is a reluctance to speak about, let alone intervene in domestic violence abuse. But beyond this, women aren’t empowered to talk to their partners about sex and condom-use. It is viewed as disrespectful. This in turn exacerbates awareness of prevention of HIV/AIDS. To combat this Hlomelikusasa organized empowerment workshops and know-your-rights training: • 51 women attended 2 workshops on Trafficking of Women and Children (primarily women from aged 18-55). This addressed the mechanisms used in trafficking and strategies to combat it. • 16 women participated in an HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis awareness workshop. They learned about ART treatment, resistance and adherence, condom use, and myths about the virus propagated by people afraid of the social stigma associated with the disease It is hoped that these types of trainings will start to create awareness of these issues and how they can be stopped and/or prevented. More workshops are being planned. In addition to these trainings Hlomelikusasa provided ongoing support and technical assistance for 8 women’s groups who are looking to develop businesses. This included: o Assistance to develop their projects into businesses and knowledge of how to market their products o Support to write proposals to request public funds o Researching viable business ideas for Hlomelikusasa member groups o Helping with product development, marketing, exporting and planning of learning tours to applicable projects o Conducting skills and audit training geared to strengthen the groups.