3 Micro-bakeries for rural women in South Africa

We would like to express our gratitude for your contributions towards an organisation called Kusile Women Empowerment, an NPO registered in 2012 in the Mlungisi township in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Nomfuneko, the chairperson of the organisation’s board described the community as very poor, stating that the unemployment rate is close to 45% and is especially high amongst the youth. The community relies on the essential services of organisations such as Kusile Women Empowerment.

The organisation aims to reduce GBVF and child abuse but also provides home-based care and runs a soup kitchen. The organisation offers the following services:

• Awareness campaigns in the community
• GBVF support - this includes accompanying survivors to open cases, taking them to hospital, providing trauma debriefing and providing a safe house if needed
• Home-based care services for the elderly and individuals living with disabilities
• A soup kitchen that provides food to survivors in the centre

The soup kitchen provides food to the abuse survivors within the centre, as well as a group of elderly women who meet twice a week at the centre. In addition, in school holidays and during long weekends the soup kitchen operates to feed children in the community. Nomfuneko explained that the demand is high for the food kitchen and the organisation tries to supplement its food supplies with a food garden in the summer.

The organisation received a gas stove from RDSP, and through the donation received through the GlobalGiving platform they were able to purchase ingredients such as flour, mealie meal, oil and other essentials which enables them to feed school children and survivors during the school holidays earlier this year.

Thank you for your support and contribution towards sustaining vital organisations like Kusile Women Empowerment in the most rural and impoverished communities such as Mlungisi. The services they are able to provide make the world of difference to those they serve.