Zululand NPOs team up to empower women
Izulu Orphan Projects' staff were trained by Amangwe Village facilitators
IN light of the phenomenal success of Amangwe Village’s women empowerment self-help groups, which have grown from three to 185 in just nine years, the project will be established further afield after recent training of Izulu Orphan Projects.
After carrying out a survey to determine the influencing factors contributing to multi-dimentional poverty, Izulu Orphan Projects found that 86% of families have never saved income, while 69% have no access to credit, either formal or informal.
With neither savings nor credit, it is impossible to have the funds to generate an income or start a business.
The need to empower women in rural areas where there are few, if any, opportunities for them to look after their families, is great.
There is an increase in women-headed households that places more responsibilities on women in the current economic climate.
The project was implemented in 2009 in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Sinamandla.
Initially a pilot project with three employees and three groups, it has expanded beyond expectations.
Izulu Orphan Projects wanted to equip the organisation with new tools to fight poverty in their areas of operation.
Their survey also revealed that only 9% of families have strong social networks, meaning low social capital among communities, while 96% of families do not budget regularly or plan for their future.
The women empowerment programme addresses these core issues by creating facilitated self-help saving groups, where the women learn to budget in a participatory process of saving R2 per week.
The savings creates a communal fund. Women are able to discuss their needs and take loans to be paid back at 10% interest.
The enablement through the loans and payback system creates trust and builds an economic platform which sets the stage for the women to lift themselves out of poverty.
Both Erna Steynberg, Amangwe Village Manager, and Kate Bain, Izulu Orphan Projects’ founder, look forward to the benefits brought about by this partnership.
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