Project Name: Women of Worth
Agency: African Enterprise Ltd
Country: Kenya
Tax Status: Tax Deductible
Target: $30 000.00
RAISED: $38,608.60
PROJECT UPDATE
It is with warm gratitude that African Enterprise (AE) Australia writes to you to say thank you for the generosity of spirit of Gymea Baptist and your friends in the local community.
Your love displayed through your generous giving and the engaging way you went about it is a real witness to your community and to all at AE in Australia and in Kenya.
Click here to read more on how this project is progressing ....
Africa’s urban population is expected to increase from 294 million to 742 million. Nairobi (capital of Kenya) is often cited as the example of what can go wrong with extensive urbanisation. Within the city there are four slums, two are the largest in Africa. Mathare slum has a population of 792 000 people. That is like taking the population of Southern Sydney from Cronulla to Penrith and placing it in a space the size of Kirrawee. This type of overcrowding leads to indescribable living conditions and significant social tensions. On top of that there is 70% unemployment. The majority of men are dead or dying from HIV/AIDS leaving either a female or child as head of households, in a country where women and children have little rights. Illicit alcohol abuse affects 80% of the families and 40% of the woman in Mathare due to the unemployment rates are involved in the sex industry. Huge riots have left one thousand dead and tens of thousands injured, in these slums. Three hundred thousand internally displaced people were cared for over the months of January to May 2008.
The objective of this project is:
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To train, counsel and care for 30 women at a time from Mathare slum with backgrounds as sex workers.
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To equip these woman to engage in local clothing market, training them in knitting, sewing, embroidery and other tailoring skills plus how to manage a small business.
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To train these women in establishing small enterprises in specific markets of school uniforms, dress making, knitted wear and other quality items that are in demand at local market stalls.
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To promote social entrepreneurism to counter welfare dependence and independence from the sex industry.
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To build community capacity within Mathare with a greater sense of vocational independence and self reliance using regenerable programs.
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To reduce involvement in the sex industry and counter the associate social and medical ills that industry creates.
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Through strategic networks with WOFAK (Women Fighting Aids in Kenya) and KENWA (Kenya Network of Women Living Positively with AIDS), intervene in the cases of HIV/AIDS among our trainees by supplying them with anti-retroviral drugs as well as nutritional foods to boost their immunity.