Create Opportunities for Rural Women to Own Land

Women and Girls > Create Opportunities for Rural Women to Own Land

Create Opportunities for Rural Women to Own Land

Summary

Rural Women’s Movement teaches women their rights to own land and access resources in South Africa. RWM trains women to acquire land, learn sustainable farming and paves the way to self-sufficiency. read updates from the field

How Donors Like You Helped

Thanks to donors like you, a total of $2,120 was raised for this project.

More Information About this Project

Project Needs and Beneficiaries

Rural women are often unaware of their rights under the constitution allowing them to own land, to access communal land and other basic rights. In the KwaZulu-Natal, patriarchal attitudes are strong within Zulu culture leaving women behind the incredible changes South Africa has experienced in the last 12 years. HIV/AIDS only exacerbates women’s ability to access their rights. Women are often blamed for infecting their husbands and in some cases are evicted from their homes as a result.

Activities

Rural Women’s Movement works in 14 communities in KwaZulu-Natal to secure land tenure, provide HIV positive families with access to health workers, increase women’s participation in local governance and holds sustainable agriculture trainings.

Funding Information

Total Funding Received to Date: $2,120

Funding Information

This project is now in implementation and no longer available for funding. Received funds will be used to accomplish concrete objectives as indicated in the project's "Activities" section. Updates will be posted under the "Progress Report" tab as they become available.

Donors' contributions and pledges to this project totaled $2,120. The original project funding goal was $8,500.

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources

Project's External Homepage (http://www.idex.org)

Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

By empowering women to own and use land, communities in KwaZulu-Natal become self-sufficient, vibrant and healthy. Women are leading the way to creating long-term, positive impacts on their communities. Land rights are one step towards that change.

Project Message

“…To this day, women are having difficulty accessing land in their own rights as women. They do not have independent rights to land; these rights are still attached to their spouses.”
- Sizani Ngubane, Director, Rural Women’s Movement

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Sizane Ngubane,
Founding Director
IDEX
827 Valencia Street, Suite 101
San Francisco, CA 94110
United States
415-824-8384
Email:

Project Sponsor

International Development Exchange (IDEX)

Organization

Rural Women's Movement
c/o IDEX
827 Valencia Street, Suite 101
San Francisco, CA 94110
South Africa
415-824-8384
http://www.idex.org/country.php?country_id=10

Learn more about Rural Women's Movement and the project team.

Rural Women's Movement's Funded Projects on GlobalGiving

Help Women Access Land and Rights in S. Africa

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in South Africa and can also be found under Women and Girls.

For more information about South Africa, read the Human Development Report on South Africa or the Wikipedia entry for South Africa.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on December 19, 2006.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on September 28, 2006.

Latest Update from the Field

Update December 2006

By Sarah Dotlich - Africa Program Director, IDEX, December 19, 2006 03:30 PM

By Sarah Dotlich - Africa Program Director, IDEX
Sarah Dotlich, IDEX Africa Program Director recently visited Rural Women’s Movement (RWM) to learn more about their work and the current issues facing rural women in South Africa today. She met with the women of Amahlubi in the rural province of KwaZulu-Natal where RWM, with the support of donors like you, has:
• Set up a rural office now equipped with computers;
• Established a meeting space for women to develop business skills (businesses include catering, sewing and agriculture);
• Provided training for the women in sustainable agriculture; and
• Negotiated with the local leaders to allocate them a plot of land to grow their vegetables, which they will sell to members of the community.

While in KwaZulu-Natal, Sarah met Nonhlanhla, a member of RWM since it was founded in 2000. Thanks to a small loan from RWM’s microcredit project, Nonhlanhla secured the necessary supplies to begin her work with the local Department of Forestry on a contract to fell non-native trees from the forest. The loan enabled to pay for the necessary supplies to do the work which has lead to her securing the contract over the long-term and Nonhlanhla now has employs workers at her small business. She also acts as chair to the local RWM committee where over 100 women meet on a monthly basis to share ideas about income-generating projects, learn how to secure birth certificates for their children which are necessary in order to ensure they can go to school, and receive HIV/AIDS prevention education and tips on how to live positively with the disease.

Thank you for your continued support of this impressive work.

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