Strategies to prevent violence against women and children include Income and economic strengthening, reduction of poverty, empowerment of women, transformation of attitudes, beliefs and norms around gender-based violence. To this end, COPESSA was approached by a group of women from the community who have since registered as a co-operative known as the Women of Worth (WOW) co-operative to seek assistance with training and resources on crafts-making.
One of the goals for WOW is “to empower women so that they can be economically independent, in order that they can better protect their children.”
The Objectives are:
- To invest in the training and development of the sewing skills for 30 women
- To improve the women’s parenting skills
- To improve knowledge and attitudes about GBV
SAGE Foundation donated about R431 000. Due to Covid -19 pandemic, we were able to achieve objective 1. Women were able to manufacture 3-ply masks, which have been distributed to the community, especially during the hard lock-down. Some of the funds were diverted to assistance with food parcels and other PPEs, and psycho-social support of families that were hit hard by Covid 19 and GBV during the lockdown. We have discussed this deviation with the Foundation. The WOW are on their way to become entrepreneurs. They also do beading and sell their beaded wears to the community.
We are currently raising fund for objectives 2 and 3.
