Sponsor a Woman's Sewing Training in South Africa

GVI sewing classes, sponsored by the GVI Trust are a roaring success as the program begins to uncover promising entrepreneurs who are passionate about starting up their own business. Our sustainable method of teaching allows the women to teach one another, this results in them not just gaining the knowledge of how to sew but also how to teach, mentor and co-ordinate a class.  As a result, a new social group has been created who are taking it upon themselves to use the sewing machines provided by the GVI Trust to not only better their financial position but to strengthen their relationships with members of the community and hopefully form business partnerships together in the future. 

In February 2018, we started our new sewing course as part of our women's empowerment project here in Gordons Bay as a direct result of feedback received from women in 2017. The Women’s Empowerment program currently have 3 sewing machines which were purchased following a fundraising initiative back in December 2017. The run, row and ride the GVI Trust fundraising event raised over R19,000 for our projects by volunteers covering a total distance of 127km in their local gym.

The program first started off by GVI selecting three women from the local community who were passionate about improving their sewing skills. Over the course of 6 weeks, they completed a course made my GVI volunteers which covered basic sewing techniques, to making sample pieces to eventually designing and creating a product on their own. The women then go on to become teachers for the next group of sewing students. This has so far been a great success and the ladies have been incredibly creative making items such bags, clothes and scarves from beautiful local fabric. 

Whilst the GVI Trust support the lessons through the use of the sewing machines, thread and practice material, the course is entirely run by the women in the community and it has become a self-sufficient project of women empowering and teaching one another. 

The women can come and use the donated machines daily and it has been heart-warming to see lots of new friendships and support networks formed from ladies learning to sew together. Many of the ladies who have successfully completed the course continue to come in and support new students in their free time.

One of our first sewing students who got to use the machines which was funded by our donors was a lady named Cacilda who had previously never sewn before starting the course. After completing the course, she has been coming in regularly to practice on the machines and has begun making clothes and bags for friends and families, as well as decorations for her local church. Cacilda has recently begun working on a business idea to make materials that can be hired for events, such as table cloths, chair covers and decorations. Her hard work has paid off and we are incredibly proud to say that she has now made her first sale! Cacilda regularly helps the new students in her spare time and can often be heard inspiring and encouraging the women. She is an inspiring role model to the women she supports and through learning a skill and putting in hard work, she is starting to make her business a reality. 

We have been overwhelmed with the number of women who have wanted to join the sewing course which is a fantastic testament to the women who have made it such a success. Going forward we are implementing business workshops to support more women in how to turn their new skill into a business and we are hoping that lots more women will be following in Cascilda's path.

In the past three months, the GVI Trust donated machines provided a great foundation for GVI to be able to start its sewing lessons on a small scale. This was to ensure that the project remained manageable. Moving forward into 2018, the GVI Trust will look more into the support of committed women who has shown initiative and a desire to start businesses. The ideal is to financially be able to provide female start-up entrepreneurs with the start-up capital.

Thank you for all of those who donated and contributed to Cascilda’s vision. We hope to continue to support women just like Cascilda!

With Love, 

GVI CT Womans Empowerment

Dear Supporters,

Women make up 51% of the total population in South Africa but are underrepresented when it comes to positions of authority and power. Gender equality is part of the constitution, which advocates for half of all decision-making positions to be held by women but nothing is actively being done to meet this target. When it comes to leading powerful companies, only one business out of the top 40 JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) listed enterprises has a female CEO. With this in mind, GVI has been working towards creating a certified computer course which is in line with SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority).

SETA is a vocational skills training organisation in South Africa which was established to manage skills development needs and is recognised by the SAQA (South African Qualification Authority). Our volunteers have developed a new, advanced computer course as well as a comprehensive ‘learner workbook’ which participants must submit as their final piece alongside a practical assessment and reflection paper. The computer classes are run by the volunteers on a one-to- one basis in thirty minute incriminates, this allows the women to complete the course at their own pace. The participants will learn how to change the configuration of a PC, how to format a disk, how to manage a computer operating systems functions and much more. These are initiatives which would not be possible without the generous donations from our supporters.

As the global economy continues to recover, we are seeing widening inequalities and not enough jobs to keep up with the growing labour force. The International Labour Organization found that more than 204 million people were unemployed in 2015 putting South Africa in the bottom ten countries in the world for employment. In relation to these figures, the purpose of our Women’s Empowerment programme is to promote sustained economic growth and high levels of productivity (this being technology focused) in the community. Since the beginning of the year, participate increase at Women’s Empowerment has soared from 4 in the first week of January to 87 by the end of the month. Volunteers have worked tirelessly to assist as many women as possible and set a record with 37 women being reached in one day. The greatest achievement we have had this month is seeing 7 women secure jobs with a local business due to their newly developed computer based skills. The owner of the business approached GVI looking for computer trained individuals and we were then able to facilitate the women applying for job roles. This really is excellent news knowing that our projects are reaching the attention of all members of the community and that the work we are doing is in high-demand. We continue to encourage job creation as well as entrepreneurship as the women leave our workshops not only with a new set of skills but with the confidence to go out and better their own situation.
Finally, GVI Cape Town, and the women in the community, want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has donated for our cause and who continuously supports the women in breaking the cycle of poverty and improve their lives as well as their families.

It would honestly not be possible without your generosity!

With Gratitude, 

GVI Womans Empowerment