The Amandla Project
Amandla, in Siswati translates to strength. Strength characterises the communities of rural Eswatini (Swaziland). This project supports one particular rural community with a high proportion of women, including young women with disabilities, involved in transactional sex. In the setting of absolute poverty, many women feel as if their only option is to participate in transactional sex to provide food, school fees and housing. Lack of choice is disempowering, and risk factors associated with transactional sex such as violence, multiple sexual partners, non-use of condoms, age-disparate sex and alcohol use, increase the risk of HIV transmission for women in sub-Saharan Africa. [1]
The purpose of the Amandla project is to financially empower these women and provide an alternative to transactional sex should they choose. The program has two arms:
1. The Amandla Sewing Group
This will provide women in the community with access to sewing machines and materials (e.g. sewing tables, chairs, thread, needles, pins, scissors, tape measure) to create uniforms/gowns/clothing for schools, churches and markets. The women will also learn sewing and business skills in order to manage their enterprise. This is a sustainable project, which provides women with initial resources until they have sufficient income to invest in their enterprise to purchase further materials. Possible Dreams International has successfully implemented sustainable enterprises in the past to support other groups generate an income.
2. Housing Projects
One particularly vulnerable family consists of three orphaned children, the oldest of whom is participating in transactional sex to support her two younger siblings. With threats for the removal of the roof of their current dilapidated hut, our local Swazi team will provide them with a new secure, house in which the children can safely play, study and sleep.
A second family includes Zandile Dlamini, who lives on her partner’s property, in a coercive relationship she wishes to be freed from. She lives with her three children who rarely get a proper meal each day. The eldest son (at 8-years-old) spends his day collecting sugarcane for the family to eat, as they cannot afford anything else. The children are all unable to attend school as they do not have birth certificates, solely because their mother does not have a birth certificate as she was orphaned when she was young. The absence of a secure house means Zandile and the children are subject to the wants and actions of Zandile’s partner. The project will provide a house, link Zandile with the Women’s Group and thus an income, and provide birth certificates and school enrolment for the children. We want to give this mother and her children the independence and support they need to flourish.
At its heart, the Amandla Project is about giving vulnerable women choice and economic freedom. Your support can help us achieve this.
Some of the incredible women in the community this project aims to support, pictured with our Swazi Team members - Thembi and Precious!
To support our Amandla Project, visit this link. We thank you for your generosity!
[1] Transactional sex and HIV risk: from analysis to action. UN AIDS 2018.