In the peaceful haven of the Kopanang community, nearly 100 women and children have found their solace, their voice, and their confidence. With the support of our donors, the Kopanang Trust Member can offer these incredible families:
• A community of women ‘walking the walk’ with one another in all their struggles, particularly around HIV/AIDS, loss and bereavement support.
• A Dikeledi (meaning ‘long tears’) Therapy Group – a forum for members to share their life stories, particularly their sorrows and struggles.
• A community that shares and celebrates its cultural and spiritual diversity.
• Skills training in embroidery and sewing.
We offer training and development programs designed to equip the women with valuable skills cover a range of topics, including:
• Leadership and organization development
• Health and well-being
• Public speaking
• Computer literacy
• Business entrepreneurial and finance workshops
• Driving skills.
Support any of these services by donating through Paypal below.
The financial affairs are overseen by a board of trustees and the
accounts audited by external auditors
Most of the women use a minibus taxi and the ones closer walk.
A few women from each group come together and form a design team to brainstorm design ideas for new products that they wish to create. Each woman then takes this design back to her team and teaches the women in her team how to make the products.
Initially when the project began in 2001, people would come to Kopanang to teach the women embroidery skills. Now the embroidery training is passed on from the leaders and sewing training is conducted by an organisation.
There has been a varied approach. Some of the training is conducted on a one-on-one basis, or through individual mentorship, and formal courses. We are currently looking at a serious training initiative to give the leadership team more formal training including certificate, diploma and maybe degree training. Most of the women don’t even have matric, so they will undergo bridging training first to give them a matric equivalent first.
The are many ways to get involved. By purchasing a product and spreading the word of this amazing project the women and the initiative get the recognition that they deserve. Donations are also greatly appreciated, whether general or for specific areas such as training, towards furniture and equipment for the project, school uniforms for the children, bursaries for university for the children of the women, home repairs and improvements, towards the feeding schemes to ensure those who cannot afford groceries are eating nutritious food to ensure there health while on ARV’s. You can also offer to share your skills in training, doing numerecy and literacy training with the women and/or the children in the sister project Sithande’Zingane that cater for the children.
Those of school going age go to school and after school many go to Sithande’Zingane a sister project on the same premises. They run a creche for preschool children and an aftercare program for after school which includes a feeding scheme, numeracy and literacy programmes, and youth empowerment programs.
Often the Kopanang women bring friends you are inflicted with the disease to the community. The new members are taken to clinics to get ARV’s and treatment and food parcels. They are looked after and recover their strength, and then brought in to be taught embroidery skills. When we need more members we put the word out and get a new group together for training. Those who are committed and work to the hig,h quality standards the women set, they stay on. Sometimes the commitment is not there and they are asked not to continue, but if they they are too ill or at an age they can’t work, we still look after them.
