Empower Rural Women & Build Skills, South Africa

IDEX Program Officers, Katherine Zavala and Rajasvini Bhansali, visited Hlomelikususa earlier this year and met Deborah, who has benefited from Hlomelikususa’s programs. Deborah shared her story of “Big Mama’s Project” with us.

For 25 years, Deborah, 54, worked on the factory line at a South African brushware factory producing brooms and other tools for indoor and outdoor cleaning. Frustrated with the low pay and harsh working conditions, one day she made the decision to strike out on her own to make and sell her own brooms in her community.

Deborah had long wanted to be part of a group of motivated women working towards self-reliance. Here was an opportunity to do just that. In 2008, with the help of Hlomelikusasa, she started the Embo Brushware Project, now affectionately called “Big Mama’s Project.”

Since starting the project, she has seen an increase in sales, as Hlomelikusasa buys a number of their brooms, brushes, and mops to sell to other communities in their network. With her growing income, she hopes to construct a bigger house for her family and one day return to school.

Her husband recently suffered a stroke so she has become the main provider of her large household. This includes her 4 children and 4 grandchildren. Fortunately, her grandchildren are going to school, but her adult children never had the opportunity. She has taught brushware skills to two of her children, as well as a daughter-in-law, and they now work alongside her in the group.

In an area with extremely high unemployment, Deborah says she has relished the opportunity to teach other women a marketable skill. The group has also done trainings with Hlomelikusasa in management and technical skills, as well as workshops in HIV and AIDS education. Soon, the group plans to employ five more women.

Thanks to your support, women like Deborah are getting the training and support they need to run successful income-generating projects. There are many more women, and many more groups, that would love to have your support as well.