If you know how to sew, you can create just about anything! The Sakhe Family Care Development Centre is giving sewing lessons to empower women to create jobs for themselves.
Humansdorp, South Africa (22 July 2022) – Empowering women by teaching valuable skills is one of the tools used to break the gender-based violence cycle. The Sakhe Family Care Development Centre in the Kouga area is giving sewing lessons to women so they can generate their own incomes.
The non-profit works in the Eastern Cape with the aims of uplifting families through training courses for wives, husbands and children alike. By including the entire family unit, they can work towards educating, uplifting and breaking long-standing cycles of abuse.
The hope is to prevent gender-based violence. Husbands are guided through an educational programme, youth are offered driving lessons and computer courses, and women are empowered through sewing.
The sewing is taught on industrial scale sewing machines. The women are taught the basics however, the goal is for them to learn how to make uniforms for schools and local businesses. This opens opportunity to start
“So many women in South Africa never had, and even now don’t have, the opportunity to study, but they have a passionate desire to be trained.
In the Kouga Area of the Eastern Cape, where the Sakhe Family Care Development Centre NPO is active, we have encountered many women who yearn to receive training in some direction to make them economically active and independent.
Consequently, we have identified a specific area of need: we aim to train as many women as possible in sewing and related skills, enabling them to produce a sellable product that can be marketed.” – says Antoinette Ferreira
“The reaction when we started advertising was overwhelming. We have trained 25 women so far, yet the need is tremendous, and we need extra funds to continue training even more.”
Since the classes were started, the waiting list at the development centre has grown. The organisation started a crowdfund to help in covering the cost of enrolling five new ladies.
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8 Years, 82 Babies, and One Special Walk with a Community That Keeps Showing UpAfter first making the training available, our waiting list has grown and grown. As more women see the success of the training programme, they are encouraged to join. However, funding is needed to cover each woman.
The goal for the crowdfund, is to raise R18 000 that will cover the cost to train five women over the next three months. This amount includes training costs and buying of necessities for the sewing process.
“By helping a woman acquire a new skill, she can have a means of income. This gives her a stepping stone through which she can achieve even more. We have seen that this training gives her a marketable skill that leads to independence.”
Since the fund was started, over R10,000 has been raised. If you would like to find out how to get involved, you can do so here.
“The opportunities are there, but the women need the skills. You can make a difference, and therefore we ask that you please help!” – says Antoinette Ferreira from Sakhe Family Care Development Centre.
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