Khomani Women Empowerment Organisation (non-profit company)

History / Background

The Organisation was established in 2021 by 15 women on the Khomanisan land, with the aim of empowering women and youth to sustain themselves and have a voice to represent themselves. The goal is to support the social, economic, cultural, and political empowerment of women for the full enjoyment of their rights and self-determined development in society.

Vision

To have empowered and independent women in our community, achieved by creating market-driven income-generating opportunities, and by promoting and raising awareness of San identity, culture, and indigenous people’s rights.

Mission

To contribute to our community's safe existence by creating income and employment and raising public awareness of San culture through capacity building and awareness strategies. We strive to empower the community to take control of their own development, with an emphasis on women.

How We Contribute to Poverty Eradication

We establish food gardens to develop large vegetable gardens and provide job creation as needed. We also initiate home gardens by donating vegetable seeds to women and, where necessary, providing water tanks to grow their own vegetables for food security.

Current Objective

To promote a self-help spirit towards self-empowerment and employment. To enhance the nutritional value and food security in households to reduce poverty.

What We Aim to Achieve (Intervention)

A vegetable production project that supports the social and economic needs of the community as an important measure to build resilience for food security.

Who Benefits and How

The community benefits as future production will be labour-intensive, with the vision to sell fresh produce on the local market. Excess production will be provided free of charge to indigent households and the local soup kitchen to ensure food security and a more resilient local environment. Food security will be enhanced as the local soup kitchen and the most vulnerable members of the community will receive free fresh vegetables from the garden. This is a labour-intensive project with multiple harvests throughout the year, creating temporary jobs for some community members.

Sustainability

We work towards strengthening community capacity and the sustainability of this project. Once given the initial push, we aim to stand on our own, improve the lives of families, and reduce dependence on funding by expanding our current space and planting more vegetable seeds.