Fund Sewing Skills for Women in South Africa

Hello Supporters,

I am so excited for today's update, both our Women Empowerment Program in South Africa and Ghana have been going strength to strength. We have had a great year to date. Early in year we had a group of consultant students come to our program and work directly with the community to develop our program, collecting feedback we had two key focuses, shorter and compact training programs (as women are not paid to train and need to get earning soon as possible) and then the need for support to start earning funds after the training. 

With this in mind our 3 months 2 days a week course moved to 6 weeks 5 days a week and we have seen less drop out rates and a stronger pass rate which is amazing plus we can now train more women! As well as this we reached out to a local primary school and won the contract to be the only supplier for their school uniform which means women when they graduate can join the team to make uniforms and sell for a profit that helps them and their family, we have been working hard to get products the women learn to make into tourist shops, local shops and we are working to have market stalls and pop up shops over the festive season across Africa. 

As well as this we have just launched our online global shop and so now you can also support us and buy yourself an item hand made by one of our women https://actionchange.etsy.com 

We are also very excited to be launching "bubbles and sewing parties" for the women to help generate an income. All funds from these sales are going directly to the women for now but our aim is to grow and part of the profits from these initiatives will fund the training program for other locals but until then we are using your amazingly wonderful donations to fund these. 

We also have a great opportunity to expand our program to add 10 other skills programs and reach over 10,000 people but we need to raise $190,000 to purchase the school and launch so watch this space for a new and exciting program soon, if you know of any corporations that might like to sponsor a business hub in Africa then please do share our details for them to get in touch with corporate@actionchange.org

Our program really is going from success to success and this is because of the support we get from you and other amazing donors like you so from us all, thank you! 

Thanks,

Dorcas and Ty

A Special Update

Introduction 

Life in a township is unregistered and therefore you can't just set up a business. The only way we can tackle all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is through training, investment and job creation and this is what is at the heart of this project.

Report 

We continue to provide graduates with support and access to sewing machines, stoves and computers but with a small start-up grant to purchase essential supplies is often the only thing needed to support local women start her very own business. In addition, the project will contribute to skills development and provide job opportunities which will break the cycle of poverty. A donation of $50 will allow one women to register her own business.

Thank you for your support.