Aid and Development Projects You Support Each Year
“I want to open a tailoring shop for my business,” said Brenda. “With this I will raise my family, and I am going to train others and share my skills with them. May God bless the donors and African Enterprise.”
-Brenda, Malawi Tailoring Project
African Enterprise has several holistic and transformative social action programs which demonstrate the love of Christ to vulnerable and marginalised communities. These programs include advocacy for early childhood education, water and sanitation, vocational education, vulnerable women rehabilitation, health education, hospitals, HIV Education programs, apprenticeship programs, community self help groups and more.
Zambia (12 months)
Overview: The impact of COVID-19 on Zambia has extended beyond just a medical crisis. The pandemic caused Zambia to fall into a deep recession impacting manufacturing, mining, tourism and investment. Natural disasters and flooding has made a bad situation worse in many areas of Zambia with corruption, hunger and the lack of health services pushing vulnerable women into risky behaviour such as prostitution.
HIV/AIDS continues to be a significant issue, particularly with adolescents and young people. Children continue to be born with HIV with many not getting treatment.
This project aims to empower 20 vulnerable women by training them in tailoring. Upon completion of the training, the women will join community transformation groups to help them gain business skills so they can establish and run their own businesses.
A partnership with ‘Women of Skills Hub’, who have many years of experience in training vulnerable women, has been established for the delivery of the training
Brenda is a single mother of 2 girls and one boy who are still in primary school. She has been selling charcoal at the market to support her school-going children.
Ethiopia (8 months)
Overview: Most households in Ethiopia use wood, tree leaves, animal dung and crop residues for cooking. Often it is female members of the household that spend more than half a day fetching firewood. The average weight of wood bundles women carry per trip is about 20 kg and that is backbreaking.
Collecting firewood from forest areas has safety risks for women. They can be robbed of their firewood, beaten or raped. The women sell the wood in the open market to earn some money and feed their families. Often, poor families have five or more children and the burden of feeding the children rests on the mother.
African Enterprise Ethiopia, in partnership with churches in Arba Minch, will train 30 women in basic sewing skills. After graduation, the women will start a small sewing business and be gifted with a sewing machine and startup money.
Netsanet Maaze is a mother of 3 children. Each day her 13 year old daughter goes to school in the morning and then joins her mother in collecting firewood. They collect enough firewood to make A$2.5 each day. This meagre amount of money need to cover the household expenses including food, rent, clothing, and school fees.
Ghana (12 months)
Overview: Poverty and socio-economic challenges are causing children to live on the street resulting in them getting involved in robbery, violence, drugs and prostitution. Children, particularly girls, are at risk of being raped and needing to enter into prostitution to be able to survive.
Providing street kids with vocational skills empowers them to break free from robbery, prostitution and drugs. Vocational skills will enable the street children to earn money while having a positive impact on the community.
The street children apprenticeship program will focus on training 35 street children in tailoring, aluminium fabrication, computer training and bakery skills. Upon completion of the training the children will join community transformation groups to help them gain business skills so they can establish and run their own businesses.
Aminatu is 15 years. Her father hails from Mali, but her mother is a Ghanaian. Aminatu lives with her auntie in Kasoa. She desired to go back to school, but because of financial constraints, she settled for tailoring. Her hope for the future came alive when she heard about African Enterprise. She is optimistic that her life will be better in the coming years.
Kenya
Overview: The Soweto Kayole Primary Healthcare Clinic was established by African Enterprise in partnership with the local community in 1991 to provide affordable health services for the 164,000 residents in the Embakasi District of Nairobi. While the clinic has been able to provide prenatal and postnatal health services, it has not had a maternity ward resulting in many women giving birth at home without medical support.
The construction of a maternity ward will enable women to give birth in a safe and hygienic environment with trained nurses and mid-wives available to support the birth. The maternity ward will reduce the number of home births and increase the survival rate for babies and their mothers.
This project will enable the maternity ward to be built and the purchase of the appropriate equipment and medical supplies.
The provision of weekly infant vaccination services from the new maternity ward will provide additional support to families and their children.
The clinic administrator, Stephen Vengi reports the community are excited about having a maternity ward being build. He says “One of the women attending her routine pregnancy clinics here at our facility recently asked me when we are likely to start using the new maternity services as she wished to be the first woman to deliver her baby at the facility. When I hear such comments, I am very encouraged and feel assured that the community is eagerly waiting for the maternity facility to be operational.”
Malawi (12 months)
Overview: The high number of HIV/AIDS-related deaths in Malawi has resulted in a large number of orphans. Many orphaned girls have turned to prostitution in order to survive. However, the risk of catching AIDS from a prostitute has scared many men resulting in women having to fight hard to attract men so they can earn a living.
Giving these women and girls vocational skills will allow them to earn a living without needing to engage in prostitution. Teaching women skills in tailoring will give them the opportunity to start a business and earn money. The women will be trained on how to run a small-scale business and introduced to money-lending organisations so they can borrow money and open their own tailoring shops.
The facilities of the training school are being upgraded to ensure a safe and secure place to deliver the training. This includes fixing a broken fence and upgrading gutters to ensure they can withstand heavy rain.
One of the students, Lonjezo Luka lives with her mother who is a widow. Talking about her tailoring lessons, she said, “From the first day of my learning, I have been able to acquire some early tips and skills of sewing. These include; knowing of parts of a sewing machine, operating a sewing machine, how to make straight lines on a piece of cloth, and how to take measurements. Practically, I have learned how to make a dress, blouse, skirt and how to come up with a curtain.”
Rwanda (7 months)
Overview: Rwandan health surveys reported that 90% of visits to rural health centres were due to diseases caused by poor hygiene due to inadequate sanitation facilities. This resulted in diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery, and typhoid; all diseases that are preventable with adequate sanitation facilities.
To address these issues a multi-faceted approach is needed. Public awareness of the need for good hygiene and sanitation practices is needed so households understand the benefits of having sanitation facilities such as toilets and hand washing. Engaging key community stakeholders will help multiply the impact of the awareness campaign. Accountability and clear responsibilities will assist in the establishment of community facilitators to raise awareness of hygiene.
Improving the availability of sanitation and hygiene products is key to raising the hygiene levels. The establishment of showrooms in the community will increase the number of new and existing businesses that stock sanitation products. This Market Based Approach to sanitation will help the community aware of the types of sanitation products that are available including septic tanks, toilets (pedestal, tiger worm etc), toilet products (toilet paper, cleaning supplies etc) ramps, construction methods and pit emptying techniques.
Community meetings have been held every Tuesday at the village level by local leaders to raise awareness of the need to engage local businesses in the provision of sanitation and hygiene products.
South Africa (12 months)
Overview: In 2018 African Enterprise South Africa launched a sewing project with the support of the community in response to the abject poverty in the community. The aim of the project is to empower people to use their hands and develop their skills in dressmaking and fashion designing so that they can provide for themselves and their families.
During the course, the 30 participants learn how to make basic home wear such as aprons, pinafore dresses and high fashionwear.
After graduation, the women will start a small sewing business and be gifted with a sewing machine and startup money. African enterprise continues to monitor these small businesses and help them be self-sustaining.
By the end of the program, the students are able to follow complex designs and make high-fashion dresses they can sell for profit.
Tanzania (2 years)
Overview: The number of unemployed youth in the cities of Africa has become a huge problem with Dar es Salaam not an exception. When there are a large number of youth idle on the streets they can be easily lured to join activities that are risky not only to their lives but also to community.
In Dar es Salaam some youth join the Bodaboda (motorbike) business with very little or no riding training. They are a risk to themselves and other commuters with many involved in accidents, some fatally. Likewise, younger women engage in prostitution to get an income. Even getting a housekeeping job is not safe as many of these girls get low wages and are victims of significant abuse in the homes they work.
This project aims at empowering, capacity building, and supporting 60 youths to eventually engage in the fight against poverty and gain the ability to meet basic needs. They will be provided skills training in tailoring or computer skills and them helped to create and run their own business so they can step out of the cycle of risky behaviour and poverty.
Once they have their own business they will be encouraged to be ambassadors for change among other youth in their community.
The tailoring project offered gave Warda Madenge a chance to learn valuable skills, a pathway to self-reliance, and a reason to dream again. This opportunity, she shared, has given her a newfound sense of purpose – the purpose she had spent years searching for.
Uganda (12 months)
Overview: In Uganda, 41% of people live in poverty, and almost half of Uganda’s population is under the age of 15, representing one of the youngest populations in the world. Unemployment is a significant issue for young people which leads to higher levels of sexual violence and poor hygiene particularly among young women and girls.
This project is working closely with local structures and other community-based organisations to improve the lives of young men and women. Selected youth will equipped with vocational and business skills and supported to start income-generating ventures. Other youth will be provided access to youth-friendly reproductive health information and services.
These activities will be conducted in the community by establishing community transformation groups. Community leaders will provide mentoring and support as the youth learn vocational and business skills. The leaders will be provided training to support the youth’s economic activities and represent their communities to the youth.
Community engagement meetings with 25 community leaders
LIVES TRANSFORMED
“It has never been easy for me since I dropped out of school due to lack of funds. My life has been under the control of friends who manage to feed me. The good part of me tells me it is better to learn vocational skills in order to become self-sufficient. There was no means for me to learn any trade. By the grace of God, I heard about the good work AE is doing so I made a move to the office. Lo and behold I was given the opportunity to learn aluminum fabrication. May the good Lord bless African Enterprise for the good work they are doing.”
– Alex Collins Seddoh, Ghana Street Children Apprenticeship Project (SCAP).
“Once I complete my training, I am hoping to start a small dressmaking and embroidery business near where I live. Once my business is stable, I will also create opportunities for other women interested in learning a skill to come and learn from me. I believe that through these skills, my life will be transformed economically and my family will live a better life. I wish to thank the Mathare Women Staff and AE for their love, support and commitment to empower me. May God richly bless you.”
– Esther Wangari, Mathare Women Empowerment Project.
Read about the lives that have been transformed by Jesus.
Sign up to receive Mission Updates: