| Dear Friends, August 9, 2009 marks the 52nd anniversary of South African Women’s Day. Shared Interest celebrates this occasion by honoring the women who are still on the frontlines of the campaign to support their families, and to build sustainable communities and a more equitable society. They are mothers like Rosina Mabeba, Yvonne Molefe, Salome Mondlane and Phildah Modjadji, who put the loans we guarantee to work. With their unrelenting determination and skill, commitment and courage, they are transforming the lives of their families and playing leadership roles in their communities. Through their micro- and small businesses and community enterprises they are breaking down beariers and setting precedents for women in South Africa and beyond.
Sincerely, |
| Rosina Mabeba | |
 Rosina Mabeba is the treasurer of the Matseke Village Center in Limpopo Province, organized by the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) - a position to which she was elected a year ago. Like SEF’s other clients, she borrows and saves as part of a group, through an organization of groups in her village. She believes that one of the reasons she was chosen is her experience handling money in the small spaza (convience) shop that she operates, thanks to loans from SEF over a four year period. Beginning with a R500 (US$66) loan, she graduated up the loan ladder to her most recent loan of R2,600 (US$3,466). In the shop she works hard from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. selling candy, boiled eggs, biscuits, fish for barbequing and traditional beer. To price her goods she investigates the costs of the wholesale products, evaluates her own costs and studies what her competitors charge. “Before I took the loan I was struggling for food, bread and school fees,” recalls Rosina. Her situation was particularly challenging, as she has 10 children, ranging in age from six to 26 (including three sets of twins, all of whom are still in elementary school). Rosina’s business has been quite successful, enabling her to maintain her family. She is hopeful that in five years her shop will continue to grow, with SEF’s help, and enable her to insure that all her children receive the food, clothing and education for which she is working so hard. |
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| Yvonne Molefe | |
 “I felt I could make more of a contribution than I was making,” explains Yvonne Molefe, Managing Director of Misty Sea, one of South Africa’s first black-owned commercial pig-raising businesses, not far from Johannesburg. Yvonne and her husband purchased an old previously white-owned farm in 1998. ”The first day on the farm I said ‘where do I start? Agriculture was far away from my life. I was from the township. I had to read about different approaches, and bought a book on pig management. I mobilized my family, who helped on weekends.”Yvonne began with ten sows and one boar. Today she has 270 sows and 35 boars, and is in the process of acquiring 30 more sows. As a black woman in the commercial pig industry, she has encountered obstacles. “People don’t expect to see you - a female - where you are,” she comments. “It is still quite a shock.” She has experienced harassment by local white officials and the Town Council. In 2006, when a storm caused the roof of one of the sheds to fall, killing many of the pigs below, the insurance company refused to pay the claim. Yvonne had no choice but to make repairs herself, and used the prize money she had been awarded in 2004 as Top Producer for National Markets to feed her pigs and rebuild the business. Her second Shared Interest-guaranteed loan enabled her to restructure the project. Despite the fact that Yvonne still struggles, she has won the respect of neighboring white farmers. Today Yvonne is still the only black member of the South Africa Pig Producing Organization, which now sends emerging farmers to her for inspiration and informal mentoring. This has given her the idea of developing a training school on her land for emerging pig farmers. She has already prepared several training manuals. “There are four things I would tell an emerging farmer,” she concludes. “You have to do research and visit other pig farmers. You also have to know that this business is capital intensive. Also it’s an industry governed by standards - there have to be measures of bio-safety. Most of all I would ask, ‘Is it only for making money?’ If you only do it for the money, it won’t work. You have to put your heart into it.” |
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| Salome Mondlane and Phildah Modjadji | |
“We women wanted to be the ones to do this thing,” explains Salome Mondlane, 72 year-old member of the Diretsogetse Pankop Board of Directors. Born in the small town of Pankop, Mpumalanga, at that time part of the apartheid-designated homeland of Bophutatswana, Mrs. Mondlane succeeded Phildah Modjadji, mother of eight, as principal of the local elementary school. They are two active leaders of the fruit and vegetable production and dehydration project organized by the Pankop Women Farmers’ Forum in collaboration with tribal and municipal authorities.
Mrs. Mondlane and Mrs. Modjadji worked with 300 women in the community to grow fruit to supplement their incomes and the diets of their children, and pay for school fees and electricity. They organized the Pankop Women Farmers Forum in collaboration with the tribal chiefs and the councilors and executive of the Dr. JS Moroka Municipality. Then they sought to create jobs for the community’s youth. “We say in our language, ‘the mother handles the knife by the blade, not the handle,’” notes Mrs. Modjadji. “We know each other, and who can stand up for each other. The women of our community began with the objective of helping their youth by alleviating poverty and creating job opportunities for our children.” In 2003, the community devised a plan and secured loans with the help of Shared Interest guarantees and Thembani’s technical assistance. They converted a former girls’ dorm into a fruit and vegetable dehydration plant, set up a hydroponic community growing area to expand production, and finally helped neighboring farmers increase their supply of produce for the project. “Although we are still struggling, we are not waiting. We are moving on,” affirms Mrs. Modjadji. “We want this to be the star project of South Africa. We mean business.” |
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