Themba Training uses micro business training tools, expert mentoring, and start up capital to empower unemployed breadwinners to start micro businesses.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

See our latest updates on the new Thembalitsha Foundation blog!

Thank you for being a loyal supporter and friend of Themba Training and Thembalitsha Foundation! We have recently streamlined all of our blogs into a single website for all of the projects so you can keep up with all things Thembalitsha in one place: thembalitsha.blogspot.com. If you are interested in following our new combined stream, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your up-to-date e-mail address in the "Follow By E-mail" field. And if you still want to view project-specific content, you can choose a project from the drop-down menu at the top! All of our old posts from this blog have also migrated there as well in a full archives.

We hope that this new platform will be incredibly easy for you to use and also show you the full scope of the exciting happenings here at Thembalitsha! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at any time - we love hearing from our supporters.

We look forward to sharing more of this journey with you!

xx
Team Themba

Monday, February 16, 2015

New Class, New Project Manager, New Year

Our graduating Class of 2014
Frances with two of our TT sewing instructors
Themba Training began 2015 with a joyful Graduation of the 2014 MBA Students on 4 February. Congratulations to our students on their amazing progress - we can't wait to see what you do with your newly acquired skills! Along with our 2014 graduates, the teachers and students took some time to say goodbye to Frances Fuchs, who has been the project manager at Themba Training. Frances' investment in the project is undeniable and we know she will be sorely missed. But we are happy to still have her in the Thembalitsha family as she moves to be the manager of Mama Themba! We also want to welcome on board Portia Motjuwadi who has been active in Themba Training for several years and is stepping up as Project Manager.

The new, all-female Class of 2015 kicked off on the 9 Feb with 20 new students. Welcome, ladies! We're overjoyed to have you joining us for the microbusiness training this year. And this class will hopefully be able to take advantage of our newly spruced up Computer Room, awaiting Internet connection from Telkom. This addition of technology will allow our students to learn the in's and out's of computers and typing and help them to be fully equipped for business in the 21st Century!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Course 3 of 2014 kicks off!

Exciting things are happening at Themba Training.

Our courses are now geared towards Women's Empowerment and our 12 week course covers 4 levels, namely business entrepreneurship, sewing training, computer training, as well as a life skills component. We are happy to be offering safety training as a part of our course to our students.

On 15 September, 18 women started the third and final course for 2014. We wish them all the best and lots of success during their course!


Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Graduation and upgrades

On the 31st of July we celebrated the culmination of the second Women’s Empowerment sewing training course. 12 women and 1 man graduated and we are very proud of our students. It was also a gigantic honour to host our board members for a part of our celebrations.


Here Ncedeka, an ex-student encourages the graduates with her success story.


We were hugely blessed by 20 visitors from the US as a part of the #10Days mission tour to South Africa. These volunteers arrived by bus to spend two days working very hard at upgrading our TT facility. Our computer lab is ready and awaiting the computers that will be moved from Bellville to Mfesane during August.
Our premises are spotlessly clean, everything neatly sorted to start our trade business with our students. Thank you #10Days!



Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Celebrations on graduation day!

On 26 May the first intake of students for our sewing training graduated to huge fanfare! It was a celebratory, happy occasion for our women's empowerment project in Crossroads.



Funiswa (trainer) on left and Frances (right) with a student

Patson (trainer) on the left with Patiswa and Francois Patiswa is a success story, she attended the business training as well as the sewing training and is already earning an income through TT business initiative. Hard work and dedication pays off!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Sewing project sparks great interest.


The current training course which started the first week of Feb and ran over 10 weeks has now ended with a tremendous success rate. Of the 15 women who started the course, 13 completed the full course. Of those 13 women 9 are attending the small business training as well, which would give them the necessary skills and business knowledge to start their own ventures. Upon doing a random test of the sewing ladies, I found their skill to be excellent. I was impressed by how the students could design something, cut, pin and sew it according to my specifications. All commendation should go to Funiswa, our excellent seamstress and teacher.

We have started beading as well. We intend starting a small business, creating opportunities for the women who attend our classes with outstanding results. Our ultimate aim is to produce keepsakes and gifts for corporates to give their clients. The first of our customers is Bosom Buddies, who hosts a fundraiser in May, for which we are producing the keyrings with the Thembalitsha logo as shown on the picture. This has given us the opportunity to retain another woman, Phatiswa, who will be responsible for the beading aspects of our project, as well as assist Funiswa.




There is so much favour on this project, so much positivity and pleasure in meeting wonderful women who want to learn and be financially independent. There is also many business opportunities on the horizon, which can possibly make this project entirely sustainable, which of course in NGO speak, is like gold dust.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Themba Training Women's Empowerment


Women bear almost all responsibility for meeting basic needs of the family, yet are systematically denied the resources, information and freedom of action they need to fulfil this responsibility.

In our experience, we have found that women are denied access not by political discrimination or isolation, but by circumstance. We get to these circumstances by a combination of a wide array of factors: social, cultural, religious and many more. We believe that although the average South African woman might be aware of her rights, she is simply not empowered enough to speak out.

Women's empowerment is a passion and priority for us at Thembalitsha. We believe that empowering the woman to be financially, physically and emotionally independent is fundamental to her (and by extension the family’s) well-being. It is with this in mind that Themba Training has launched the new sub-project, focusing on the woman, skills training and business training as well as emotional and civil support.

Our sewing training course spans 10 weeks and is combined with the small business training. The first course is coming to an end and has been tremendously successful with full attendance throughout the course. Places for the second course starting in April has already been filled with a waiting list for course 3 already opened.
Workshops on gender equality are being designed and since the emotional welfare of the woman is as important as the physical, we believe that our holistic approach will benefit many women of Crossroads/Khayelitsha.

When women are supported and empowered, all of society benefits.

TT Women's Empowerment business class filled to capacity