SOS Children's Villages Committed to Uplifting Women

According to a study by the University of Cape Town in 2008, 40% of South African children between the ages of 0 and 17 are being raised by single mothers. In the same report it was noted that 2 468000 South African Children are paternal orphans. These statistics are frightening and indicative of the challenges that South African women and their children are facing.

The SOS Children's Villages are dedicated to strengthening the role of women in family units across the country through their Family Strengthening Programme (FSP). The FSP runs various programmes in partnership with community based organisations.

There are currently 11 FSPs running in South Africa. Within these programmes, 292 women are involved in income generating activities, 233 women have been trained in home based care by the SOS Children's Villages and 115 women are running early development centres for children, supported by the SOS Children's Villages.

These projects are designed not only to teach women the skills to create products and services for resale, but also how to run and manage a small business. The women are also taught basic management, finance and fundraising skills as part of the programme. SOS Children's Villages encourages these women to register their small businesses in order for them to access funding through enterprise development programmes, with the aim of job creation and ultimately self- sustainability.

"We understand that women are the cornerstone of our communities. We have recognised a dire need in the community to train and upskill them in order to break the cycle of poverty and poor education. This can only be achieved by providing them with the necessary skills, self-belief and opportunities to become self-supporting, and in turn look after their families and engender a culture of self-reliance in their children too. By educating and assisting vulnerable women to the point that they embrace the entrepreneurial spirit that resides in all of us, we believe this can then be passed down to her children and with the right support in place, break the vicious circle of poverty," says Kerileng Mushi, National Family Strengthening Programme Manager.

This resulted in the SOS Children's Villages extending their reach into the local communities and the Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) was born.

"FSP is focused on strengthening and rebuilding communities with the aim of helping the community members to become self-sustaining and self-reliant. We implement and support various programmes including health care management, creché facilities, community forums, income generating projects and workshops to educate and inform the residents about how they can take back control and work towards improving their circumstances," adds Mushi.

"We are committed to uplifting women in communities across the country to ensure that their lives are positively impacted by our contribution. This women's month is a fitting time to pay tribute to the incredible tenacity and will of women in even the most dire circumstances to uplift themselves and their families for a better future," concludes Mushi.