Rural Women’s Movement assists women to acquire land and practice sustainable farming. They teach women their rights under South African law and how to access local health care, and skills training.
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.
RWM works in 14 communities to secure land tenure, provide HIV-positive families with access to community health volunteers, increase women’s participation in local governance and teaches sustainable agriculture to women running community gardens.
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.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
