MatsetaCommunityCentre2018Report

Link to CommunityOutreach

Possible Dreams International (PDI) for 2018

Project outline

PDI’s ‘Matsetsa Community Project’ is based is Swaziland Africa in the rural and remote communities where poverty, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS is endemic. The community centre’s soup kitchen is staffed by volunteers. It prepares and distributes meals to 50 impoverished elderly people a day. $5000 was requested to repair the soup kitchen stove, fence the soup garden & purchase some food supplies. Many elderly people contribute back by collecting firewood and working in the vegetable garden.

MATSETSA COMMUNITY CENTRE REPORT

The GWUC grant has enabled the Matsetsa soup kitchen to continue providing 50 daily meals to elderly people for the last two years. The soup kitchen is not only a place for food, but a meeting place for elderly people to spend time with their peers, thus ameliorating loneliness and depression. The soup kitchen has evolved into a place where the bogogo (grandmothers) and bomkhulu (grandfathers) can engage in activities like gardening, handicraft making, growing vegetables in the garden and gathering firewood for cooking. In the words of our Swazi field tea, the centre has been a lifeline for the senior citizens in Matsetsa.

Along with the UCF grant, the GWUC grant enabled the following:

• Empowerment of 40 Swazi women in 2018. The grant enabled 40 women, mostly grandmothers, to design, create and sell a range of handicrafts to generate an income and meet their basic needs. Matsetsa is a rural area with little commercial activity and residents are mainly subsistence farmers. The profits generated from this project were spent on basic needs such as sugar, soap, food items, water bills, hospital fees, clothes, grandchildren’s school fees, bus fares and house repairs. One woman used her profits from creating bags to make Vaseline from Aloe, which has a higher turnover.
• Harnessed the existing skills of Swazi women and encouraged women to teach other women
• Preserved traditional creative knowledge through generations
• Enabled vital social interaction and skills sharing between the elderly women. Our Swazi team observed how socially isolated elderly women now had a community and a sense of belonging and purpose, which served as protective factors against loneliness and depression. One of our Swazi team members noted: ‘Having to get up in the morning and knowing that you had something to produce gave them a sense of purpose.’ A sentiment echoed by the grandmothers: ‘It is nice to know that one is going to the Soup Kitchen not just to eat, but to also make something to get a little money and spend time chatting with our peers. It chases away boredom and loneliness.’
• Creative exchange of ideas and upskilling by attending regional fairs where the women sold their handicrafts alongside other vendors
• Recognition of the women’s skill: In August 2018, 14 women travelled to a local exhibition in the Big Bend (Manyonyaneni) and won prizes in the Best Design category. The women received monetary awards at another Regional Fair, which provided incentive to continue their hard work.
• Display and sale of handicrafts in a variety of settings, including at the Reed dance, a national event at Lobamba, and at the Ministry for Agriculture.
• Average profit from each item: SZL 65.00 per sleeping mat, SZL 35.00 per necklace, SZL 95.00 for a large floor mat, and SZL 55.00 for a small mat. As of mid-November 2018 (8.5 months since receiving the grant), half the handicraft stock has been sold and generated a collective income of SZL 12,885.00. Once the remaining stock has been sold, this will see a doubling of income. The women continue to use the raw materials purchased to create their crafts and this should keep them busy until at least mid-2019.

Lessons learnt:

• The greatest demand of all the handicrafts was for sleeping mats; many families cannot afford beds, so there is a need for sleeping mats.
• The main market for selling items is in the local community. There is a demand for items like necklaces and beaded skirts in larger markets and at the Reed Dance event.
• In practice, many of the handicrafts are time consuming to create and expected rates of production need to be adjusted accordingly. For example, a sleeping mat takes some time to create and typically requires two women working on each mat.
• There was a greater proportion of grandmothers than younger women among our Swazi Innovators for Change, and this needs to be factored into expected rates of production. For example, making ligcebesha requires careful attention and a fine needle with small beads is used. It takes 5 to 7 days for the old people to make a ligcebesha depending on the specific design. One grandmother expressed “Emehlo akasaboni kahle mntfwanami, sesiyafifiyela.” (‘The eyesight is not as great anymore my child, we squint most of the time trying to find the hole.’) On the other hand, it was a strength of this project that we were able to include elderly women, who are most in need, care for several grandchildren, and lack the physical strength and career opportunities that younger women may have.
• Sale of handicrafts is dependent on local competition and seasonal demand (e.g. increased demand during the festive season).

These lessons will inform the group’s strategy going forward.