Archive for February, 2011
The Kopanang Community Trust came was created in April 2001 driven by the need to support women in South Africa to provide a sustainable way forward through skills training and empowerment.
Sithand’izingane Care Centre opened its doors just over one year later, specifically to help the small children. Both Kopanang and Sithand’zingane offer a broad range of support initiatives.
The Centre emerged from the vandalized ruins of a sequestered farmhouse donated by the First National Bank, stripped bare of its assets (no doubt to be found in the nearby informal settlement reconstituted in the form of shacks!) It is situated about 55km south-east of Johannesburg, on the Far East Rand, bringing together two historically separated and divided townships.
Women come to Kopanang to share their hopes for a different future by the way they embrace their present reality of struggle and sickness, learning skills that will lift them into a new awareness of the power of community, and enabling them to share their cultural and spiritual stories. They find their voice. The dreams for both Kopanang and Sithand’izingane are big. Mama Paulinah, a pioneer volunteer in the children’s section said, “We must have faith that God will provide for the children.” In that faith, the project has grown and prospered through the infinite kindness of our donors. Nearly 100 women in the Kopanang project and their dependents, numbering nearly 600, find life here. It is essentially about relationships.
Visit the Kopanang Community Trust website and see how you can support these women and their families.
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Tags: Leadership comes from a place that troubles your heart. Listen to this story: “Sounds of Kindness in Tucson” at http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/01/14/us/1248069562315/sounds-of-kindness-in-tucson.html?emc=eta1. Jeanette Barr experiences the tragic death of her two year-old son. She decides to create Ben’s Bells in his memory. Bells, hung in public places, bring the chime of hope and kindness. Just watch. Small gesture. Powerful possibilities. A random act of kindness, a leadership act that grew from a place that troubled her heart.
Meet BeadForLife. BeadForLife is an organization that creates sustainable opportunities for women to lift their families out of extreme poverty by connecting people worldwide in a circleof exchange that enriches everyone.
The beaders, tailors, and shea nut gatherers are primarily impoverished women who are hardworking, intelligent, and strong in their desire to improve their lives. They make gorgeous handcrafted paper beads from recycled paper and turn them into necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. Because the beaders use recycled, colorful paper, the beads help prevent environmental degradation. What was trash becomes beauty, money, food, and hope. The women who gather the shea nuts search the landscape early in the morning looking for the finest nuts. They dry and husk the nuts and sell them to BeadforLife creating opportunities for themselves and their families.
You can support this wonderful organization by buying bead jewelry and shea butter products at http://beadforlife.org
