Lesedi la Batho Social Relief Fund, South Africa

Dear friend,

It's been a while since our last report. We have been busy busy busy serving the Mabopane Community, but we'd like to give an update on what our outreach team has been up to in the intervening time and what we have been able to accomplish with your support.

First, we were able to buy 80 food parcels with the support of Brooklyn Methodist Church. We divided those parcels amongst different support groups (GBV, Young Mothers, CSW).

Apart from this, we also received in-kind donations from different partners. We received clothing from past beneficiaries and board members, among others. These donations allowed us to provide some much needed baby items to our young mothers and members of our support groups.

Finally, we have also been busy with our proactive sessions in school. We started at a new school in September; where we are training 8th grade children on GBV and human rights, among other things. 177 boys and girls from this school are now following our programme.

Because we want to see more impact from the schools following our programmes, we have drawn up a new strategy. Instead of helping certain groups for a short term, we now follow children from 8th grade for a whole year, and continue to track impact when they are in the 9th grade. Our new strategy, combined with our updated M&E tools, allows us to track the impact of out programme in the learners' lives.

We are really grateful for the people who support our work and make this possible!

The Ikemele women empowerment program (meaning "to rise up") continues to empower women who have survived abuse (GBV/partner violence/female sex work) to heal from their trauma and become financially independent – reducing their risk of relying on an abusive partner again.

As an initiative to help these women overcome trauma and help rebuild their self-esteem; they are each enrolled in an essential skill training program and are invited to the relevant workshops. These skill programs include (but are not limited to) Life Skills, Computer Literacy Accredited Skills, Sewing and Beading, Financial Literacy Workshops, the fundamentals of business management and many more. These programs have helped many women regain confidence in themselves to overcome the challenges they’re faced with.

Many GBV survivors joined the Ikemele Program which has helped them become financially independent from their abusive partners and encouraged to utilize their new skills learnt from the programs to either apply for a job or receive funding to start their own business. A recent success story from two GBV survivors located in Mabopane extension 14 were funded with essential business supplies in order to begin their journey as entrepreneurs. These supplies included cleaning products and material in order to begin a cleaning business as well as sell cleaning products.. The other lady was supplied with hair products in order to begin her services as a hair stylist.

In the words of one of our participants “It is never too late to rise up, remove yourself from a bad situation and reinvent yourself”

These 10 women enrolled in the program had also received one-on-one sessions with one of our Social Workers where necessary. This too, is made possible by your donations and a generous donation from a longstanding partner of ours, Rays of Hope - a foundation based in Frankfurt, Germany.

Follow us on Facebook & Instagram to find out on the success stories of the Ikemele women.