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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » Gone Rural is one of the key businesses that Shared Interest Foundation will work with on a three year project (dependent on funding.)
After speaking to the ladies who run this organisation and many who are supported by Gone Rural, I feel that I have a duty to lay the facts out for all to see the harsh reality of life in Swaziland.
Gone Rural was established in 1992 by Jenny Thorne with a workshop staff of six people working with 30 women.
Set up as a rural development company, it has grown rapidly and now they have 24 workshop staff, working with 772 rural women operating from home.
These are not women who stand by and wait for handouts. They are strong and brave and have been empowered by a truly amazing organisation.
This, however, is not enough to hide the facts:
They alone are supporting their families financially
82% of them have husbands who are unemployed
Shockingly, only 10% of them have husbands who support their families financially.
Life is Tough
For most women, Gone Rural is their only source of income. Earning an average of ã1 per day, each of the 772 women supports an average of eight dependants.
Can you imagine being the sole earner and having to provide for eight? Paying for schools fees, books, clothes, food and shelter?
HIV/AIDS
14% of the women are widows and this number is increasing rapidly due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Almost half (43%) of the 15-49 year old women are HIV positive.
82% of the HIV positive pregnant women are in the 15-30 year old age group.
These are genuine facts.
60% of these ladies have an awareness of HIV/AIDS but 0% are using condoms.
Why?
61% of women don't have access to them and 65% have husbands who won't use them.
Water
The main source of water for 85% of the women is a river.
52% collect water twice a day from as far away as 7kms.
By 2010, life expectancy in Swaziland will be 27 years old.
They will have 120,000 orphans.
These are the facts laid bare for all to see.
As I am about to leave this beautiful yet incredibly fragile Kingdom, where people have opened their hearts and souls to me, I feel a huge responsibility.
I have been moved by my experiences here, by the truly inspirational people I have met.
Many of them do not know where their next meal is coming from.
I hope that I have somehow managed to portray at least a tiny fragment of the lives of these incredible craftspeople who try, through blood sweat and tears, to carve a living.
With more support, Shared Interest Foundation can work towards making life a little easier for thousands of people in Swaziland.
We can - through our training - provide key business, financial and market access skills in order to grow fair trade businesses and provide a secure livelihood for thousands of people.
More importantly, we can ensure that each and every one of the women in the businesses we work with has an awareness of HIV/AIDS and their options, whether that is to get tested or access protection.
Their future lies in our hands.
"While we hold a torch to light another's path, we cannot help but enlighten our own"
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