By Daniel Sitarenios | Operations Manager
Dear Supporters,
Since COVID-19 hit our townships hard in March of this year our focus moved quickly to the emergency relief to our communities and every day since we have continued to provide a free daily meal to over 300 community members that have lost their jobs due to the global pandemic. As we continue to fund the emergency relief we also are working hard to start opening up our project to help women gain critical skills to begin to rebuild lives into 2021.
On November 2nd we will reopen our sewing classes to our community. It will be the first time since March and we have had to change many of the operations to ensure we protect our project from COVID.
We are starting again and so we are actively fundraising to help cover the initial costs. Starting next week we will employ 3 sewing teachers that will run two classes a day three days a week for 6 women in the community. The course will last 3 weeks where they will be taught how to sew and make items they can sell locally and eventually to tourists once the borders open. The course also includes business training and career support and at the end of the 3 week course the women graduate with their own sewing skills certificate. At this stage our teachers will watch over the next cohort of 6 women but they will be taught by the graduates making this project sustainable within the community. At the end of the next 3 weeks the new cohort graduate with their sewing skills certificate and the original women obtain a teaching and mentoring skills certificate and can now access our support network to start their own business.
Part of the funding of this project provides initial start up grants for graduates to purchase material to start their own business and we provide access to our sewing 3 sewing machines during the non-taught periods. As the project raises funds we aim to purchase more machines and open similar courses in computer skills and catering.
With gifts of your donations we are able to accelerate our project and offer more skills training and a larger support network for our graduates to access the world of employment.
With Gratitude,
SA Womens Empowerment
By Sian Morris | Program Manager
By Charlotte Goodwin | Assistant Program Manager
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