For parents

SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS PROGRAMME

1. Craft Club Project – “Siyazama”

A dedicated volunteer, Marietjie Botha, manages our successful Craft Club called “Siyazama”, and trains club members marketable skills. “Siyazama” is a Xhosa word and means “we are trying”.

This endeavour is a community interaction initiative of the Unit for Religion and Development Research (URDR), Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University. We are also fortunate in that this faculty, where Marietjie is Programme Manager, Capacity Building, has made a spacious room available at no cost on their premises for training.

A maximum of 20 women per group are trained to perform crafts such as making bags, quilts, blankets, knitting, beadwork and home accessories. They also do contract work for customers with special requests. Crafters receive the income generated by the selling of products.

The club has all the training equipment which it at present needs, such as sewing machines and related cloth-making tools. Fabrics and materials for making the products have been donated by Mavromac, other fabric houses and local interior design shops. We ensure that an adequate stock is always on hand and that items produced are market related.

Transport with a mini bus, sponsored by Stellenbosch University, is provided every Tuesday from Kayamandi to the heart of Stellenbosch. Our crafters return to the centre after a full morning, or a full afternoon’s work.

Click here for more information about Stellenbosch University’s Theological School.

2. Basic business skills

Karen Ross, consultant in Sustainable Livelihoods project, has developed a micro-business course. This course is available to any mother wishing to start her own small business. Women also receive training in basic business skills including planning, costing, working out profit margins and setting prices.

Karen also provides career guidance advice, assisting with writing CV’s, doing training for interview situations and looking for work in the formal sector.

3. Proud Parents Programme

In 2009 we gave mothers the opportunity to participate in the highly acclaimed Proud Parents Programme which is presented by the In Touch Parenting Programme, of Adele Grosse. Our health care workers, Nomajama Jikela and Gloria Feleza, were trained by Adele to be facilitators and today run the ongoing support groups every Thursday.

The theme “my child, my responsibility” is used to teach parents the value of their role in their child’s life, to build their own and their child’s self-esteem at home. Mothers are taught to communicate with their children, even if their children have higher levels of education than the mothers, and to teach them values and discipline at home.

Each programme accommodates between 45 and 50 parents.

4. Medical Knowledge Institute

Mothers have weekly one-hour lectures on health issues at the Medical Knowledge Institute.

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