Productive resources

Mafumanang Sekonyela – Lesotho

Mafumanang Sekonyela – Lesotho

It makes her cry time and again when she remembers what Gender Links (GL) has done for her and her first interaction with them. She remembers vividly that she was sitting at the corner of the Seate Hall where she was waiting to be given a paper and a pen because she was going to write her story. She felt very lonely because she was very sick and she did not know anybody in that place.

December 7, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

Josephina Haimbodi – Namibia

Josephina Haimbodi – Namibia

Josephina is a single young woman and a grade 10 learner. She runs a service business which operate as a salon in Windhoek. She provides services such as hair braiding, dying hair and providing advices to customers. She started running this type of business in 2012 while doing her grade 8. She is still at school and continues with the same idea and she says she want to continue with her business even after completing her secondary education. Currently her business is her only source of income and she started it to be self-reliant. She says her business helps her lot, especially when she does not have money for transport to go to school. She feels that her business changed her life and she likes it because it is profitable.

December 7, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

Mathilda Motinga – Namibia

Mathilda Motinga – Namibia

Khaibasen Fashion Shop is the name of the business initiated by Mrs Mathilda Motinga. The business is trading as a retail shop selling traditional dresses, materials, bed linen and traditional trousers. It is enjoying both a local and an international market because of its vibrant products. The business is not yet registered but plans are underway to have it registered with the ministry of finance, ministry of trade and industry and social security. This delay was apparently caused by the lack of adequate start-up capital.

December 7, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

Leticia Jacobs – South Africa

Leticia Jacobs – South Africa

My dream has always been to become a farmer I have always loved the idea of farming, as a young girl I actually wanted to be a social worker or a veterinarian. I remember always looking after stray dogs and animals when I was young, but there was no money to send me to school. I did not even complete my high school, and I came from a very poor home so there was no chance of getting a formal education.

December 7, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

Thabsile Mavimbela – Swaziland

Thabsile was a volunteer at the community care point and worked part time as a counsellor at Nazarene Health Centre. Her husband had left her with four rented flats and three children to look after. Before she attended the training she misused the money she got from the flats and would end up approaching her in-laws for help. “After the training I started thinking about what I could do with my life so as to stop the habit of dependency that I had developedÀ. She started saving some of the money she got from rent and bought material for making ‘tidziya’ part of Swazi women’s traditional regalia.

December 7, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

HANITRA NASOLO Harilala Yacenthe – Madagascar

Hanitra is a young dynamic woman who works every day between the capital city of Antananarivo and her council, Tsiafahy, 15 kilometres away. Hanitra is single and is not very talkative. She was motivated by the mayor of her council to join the entrepreneurship training offered by Gender Links (GL) in 2013. Hanitra was happy and saw in the training an opportunity to change her life.

Two years after completing the different training courses the changes are beginning to be noted. Her neighbourhood is intrigued by Hanitra’s change: taking responsibility, making decisions and showing the initiative to develop experience in what she does.

December 7, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

Matsidiso Dlamini – Swaziland

Before the training Matsidiso used to be a dress maker, making school uniforms and track suits and selling plastic packages used to pack coal in Maputo, Mozambique. The slow growth of the economy led to her business’ failure. She ended up selling the uniforms on credit hoping to recover the cash in the long run. She also blames it on bad decision making and not keeping records correctly. She never bothered saving and could not separate the business from her personal needs. Her plastic package sales dropped due to competition which forced her to halt it indefinitely.

December 7, 2015 Themes: Business | Economic violence Programs: Entrepreneurship

Tsepiso Mpofu – Lesotho

Tsepiso Mpofu – Lesotho

Mpofu is a single mother who looks after five children and has been looking after them since birth. Mpofu was impregnated by her partner at a very young age, but her partner did not marry her. However, she stayed with him until they had five children. She feels that she should be called a driver of change due to the nature of her work and how she has changed her life for the better and even affected people around her. She added that when she looks back and remembers where she was before she encountered Gender Links, she believes that her life has changed so much that she deserves to be called a driver of change.

December 4, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

Mabatlokoa Tsolo – Lesotho

Mabatlokoa Tsolo – Lesotho

The most memorable experience Mabatlokoa Tsolo has had with Gender Links (GL) was when she shared her past dark personal experience with strangers, being Gender Links. She did so because she was told that the stories would be used by GL alone, but she still did not feel comfortable to share her story. To her surprise, all the women who were there seemed very comfortable and free and were busy writing. Speaking up about the gender based violence she had experienced made her feel vulnerable and unsafe as she only could recall the horrible days she had experienced. Meeting a group of women from different age groups who had comparable experiences made her start appreciating herself. She learned from other women that her harsh experiences do not define what her future will be like.

December 4, 2015 Themes: Gender based violence Programs: Entrepreneurship

RAZAFINDRABODO Nirina Augustine – Madagascar

Life has never been easy for Nirina, either as a child, an adult or as a mother. She is a courageous woman who is raising two children alone and is proud of herself because despite the sadness of her past, she has been able to excel and have her own business.

Nirina participated in training on entrepreneurship which was conducted by Gender Links (GL) in 2013. At first, she was not sure about how to implement her business plan. After attending the various training courses, she was able to leverage her gains and set up her own beauty centre. Nirina says that GL encouraged her to find solutions for each problem.

December 4, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

RAVELOARISOA Patricia Bien Aimee

Patricia is a young gender activist living in the urban council of Moramanga, a council located at 110 kilometres from the capital of Antananarivo. She encountered Gender Links for the first time at one of the workshops organised in the council for the centre of excellence initiative. At that time, she was a member of a local women’s association. She then joined the entrepreneurship training in 2013.

Before the training Patricia did not have stable revenue. She was doing laundry and cleaning for her neighbors and the money she gained was just enough to buy food. Moreover, her husband was always absent and he did not support her household needs. Patricia had never thought her life would change later.

December 3, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship

Mampho Ntho – Lesotho

Mampho Ntho was only a house wife who would just wait for her husband to send her money so that she could take care of the children’s basic needs. When she attended the Gender Links (GL) training she was a person who did not do anything. Ntho first encountered GL when she wrote her “IÀ story. She managed to attend all the three phases of training. During the three phases she was able to learn many things. She learnt new skills and about changing her attitude; that is when she decided to start a business because she had ideas as well as a business plan. People in her village told her that it would not be possible for her to have a successful business because she did not have any money, but she knew there was absolutely nothing that could stop her from becoming what she wanted to be.

December 3, 2015 Programs: Entrepreneurship