AbafaziPhambili empowers women

Today (November 25) marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign.

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During this period, the country and the world at large will witness a heightened number of seminars, dialogues and activities to raise awareness and deal with gender-based violence femicide (GBVF).

Empowerment of women is among the key factors looked upon as a tool to help reduce GBV, as women become more independent and not dependent on abusive partners.

Kempton Park-based organisation AbafaziPhambili, in collaboration with Cobra Lixil Africa, put women in the forefront and put action to empower women through the recent workshop.

“AbafaziPhambili is a NPC that focuses on empowering GBV survivors, driving socio-economic change and advocating for the most abandoned, neglected and underprivileged women of South Africa,” said founder Sis’ Mantoa Selepe.

“We empower GBV survivors and underprivileged women with essential skills to enable them to start their businesses, consequently minimising poverty, unemployment and GBVF.

“In achieving the above, we have collaborated with Cobra Lixil Africa to assist us with plumbing skills training to enable the women to start their businesses and escape abusive toxic relationships.”

The two-day training workshop, which also appealed to the women’s emotional state, was held at Norkem Park High School.

“Day one was more theory-based, where we provided motivation, as most of the women who experience different forms of GBV live with the perpetrators and feel they can’t amount to and do anything for themselves, which is also what most of these abusers tell them and make them think,” shared Mantoa.

“The aim is to take them out of that boxed mentality and inform them that they can achieve, young or old.

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“One of the speakers, who is a millionaire today, also motivated the women and shared how she managed to take herself out of a shack. The message we spread is for women to be survivors and not victims and to always try to find ways to get out of tough situations.

“I also shared my own story of growing up in a village in Eastern Cape without many opportunities, but I decided to empower myself and not allow my then home situation to determine my destiny.

“It’s okay to cry, but not for long. Even if you find yourself down and in a pit, always remember that diamonds and gold are found underground and you can always come out with anything in your situation.”

Five women were also adopted at the workshop by an estate agent who committed to train and mentor the women to become real estate agents and show that they too can sell houses, even when living in shacks.

Janine Mashigo, leader for HR at Lixil Africa, said the workshop served as part of the Lixil Community Day.

“This is a global initiative; corporate responsibility is at the heart of our strategy, especially around the pillar of hygiene and sanitation. On this day, we get all our employees involved and come up with an initiative to see how we can give back to our communities,” explained Mashigo.

“We collaborated with AbafaziPhambili and had some of our trainers talk to the women about how to start a business, even during a tough time, and draft a business plan.

“Day two was more practical based. The women were hands-on as they learnt some basic plumbing skills. The biggest objective of this training is to equip women with practical skills they can use to generate an income.

The plan is to grow from this initiative year on year and train more women.

“The women are the heart of the home and if we invest in our women, we know it can go far. They are the providers and nurturers.”

The women were taught about the maintenance basics of a normal tap, how to fix it without having to replace it, the working mechanism and how to assemble and disassemble it.

“We also trained on the toilet cistern; the malfunction of a toilet cistern accounts for about 30% of our water loss. We showed how to set the levels of a cistern, how to check if it is overfilling, where to adjust it and how to identify the problem if it is leaking,” said Victor Gericke, service manager at Lixil Africa.

“We also showed how to replace the seat at the bottom and educated more about what the components are on the inside.

“I would be glad to give the training again because the women were attentive, energised and it truly was a pleasure to be here. Some of the women were already eagerly waiting to go home, as they said they have taps they want to fix.”

Vusimuzi informal settlement resident Francina Ramabu was pleased with the workshop.
She said: “I became a part of AbafaziPhambili in 2020 and at that time I was a person who was always home and felt like I was in darkness without knowing where I could go to better myself.

“Things changed when I joined the organisation and I have gained a lot of knowledge and acquired skills, such as plumbing, which is something that will help us get jobs.

“Selepe treats us like family, she is like our mother and helps us a lot. I am grateful for the workshop because although some of us don’t know English well, they presented it in such a way that we were all accommodated and made it easy for us to open up and ask questions.”

Sharing the same sentiments was Thabisile Mthembu, also a Vusimuzi informal settlement resident.

“I am appreciative of all they have done for us. I feel the doors of financial liberation are opening. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for us at the informal settlement and Selepe has managed to get us out of the depressing environment of always feeling trapped,” expressed Mthembu.

“This training was great because now we are empowered and able to fix taps ourselves without having to hire someone else and spend more money from an already strained budget.

“All trainers were clear and patient with all of us, which we appreciate a lot. I appeal to other companies that might also be able to assist us to do so because there are a lot of unemployed people.”

The women were all handed certificates of completion following the two-day training workshop.

Selepe also appealed to other individuals or companies willing to provide training and work with AbafaziPhambili to contact her on 061 429 4353 or at abafaziphambili@outlook.com

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