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!

Graduation and upgrades

On the 31^st 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!

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!

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.

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

Partnering with Bosom Buddies

In a previous blog we mentioned moving into new premises (still at the Mfesane complex) and hoping to work more closely with Bosom Buddies. This has now happened! We are enjoying the new facility and the good news is that we have teamed up with Bosom Buddies and moved all the sewing equipment to Mfesane. In December we appointed Funiswa Siqongana  (a former TT student) to head up the sewing project. Funi has a “dual” role in that she will be producing items for BB, and at the same time training women in sewing. We’re hoping to expand this, and not only equip women to sew, but do it in conjunction with the Micro Business training and equip them to run effective businesses. There has been much interest in the sewing project and I was not surprised to arrive in Crossroads early in February to find a room full of women!

A further dream is to secure contracts with businesses/organisations who will enlist our sewing project to produce items needed by these businesses or for the marketplace. This will enable this project to be self-sustainable and offering a measure of employment

At the end of 2013 we had to say goodbye to our major sponsor – FSAA (Finnish South African Association). For 7 years FSAA supported us financially and in other ways, and obviously it was sad to see this partnership come to an end. We remain grateful for the support and friendship we had with the Finns.