Jane Baartjies – South Africa

I started working with Gender Links last year in 2013, when I was informed about the I-Stories workshop that was being organized by the Municipality of Cape Aghulas and Gender Links. I attended the workshop, and there were other women who were survivors of violence at the workshop. I think that was the first time I realized how much pain and hurt I had been carrying with me all these years.

I grew up on a farm; my parents were workers on the farm and I attended the local school with my younger brother. I recall an incident that happened when I was young. I grew up in an environment where there were a lot of people who used to drink alcohol and hit women and children. It was normal in my environment for women and children to be abused, and one day my younger brother and I were on the bus going home. Ours was the last stop, and suddenly the bus driver asked my brother to go and get something for him at the shop. He pulled the bus over and my brother did as he was told. I ended up closing my eyes for a few minutes, and was awoken suddenly by this heavy feeling on top of me. The bus driver had his pants down and he was tugging at my underwear. Fortunately, my brother arrived and he jumped away from me immediately; we drove home and never shared the incident with my family, but that was the start of a cycle of abuse I was exposed to for most of my life.

When I attended the I-Stories workshop, I started feeling all the pain coming back to me. At the same time, I also saw how strong I was inside when I was writing my story. I knew that my life would start taking shape differently. After the workshop had been conducted by Gender Links, we were also informed by Ntombi, the facilitater, about the Entrepreneurship Training that would follow. I was so excited to hear that there would be training available to assist women like me.

I have always liked the idea of having a wellness clinic or gym that would cater for women, children and young people. The idea of the wellness clinic came to me when I realized that there were no facilities available for recreation in my community. I have also always been someone who is into wellness; I had started thinking about the idea of the wellness clinic, but I simply did not know how to approach the situation or who to ask for help. I attended the first training session that was facilitated by Juliana Davids, and I knew I had made the right decision to attend the training. The workshop taught me to think far about my business, and suddenly I started seeing everything I had wanted and dreamt about coming into reality for me.

We have had more entrepreneurship training sessions offered by Gender Links, where we have been taught about how we need to put a business plan together, raise finances, and also possibly approach local stakeholders for assistance with the business. I was not confident about my style at first, as I had been scared to ask local businesses for assistance. However, as we continued working with Juliana, through the support we were receiving from her as the Gender Links trainer, I gained enough confidence to approach a local wellness centre about my idea, and it was such an amazing feeling!!

The club managed to donate and give me some old equipment that they did not use anymore, including a treadmill, dumbbells, mats., and a old bicycle This was so good for me; I was also able to locate the venue where we would be able to store the equipment. I am now feeling more confident about myself. I have had a lot of communication with my community, and realized people need a safe place to exercise, but for me this has been a healing process, because I can see myself being able to help others.

The main challenges that I continue to face are issues of accessing financing to start growing the business, or to think about starting it correctly. In the meantime, I have also started letting a few women and children come into the space where the machines are stored so that they can start using the equipment.

There have been personal challenges too, with having to start standing on my own for the first time after being in an abusive relationship with my former husband for many years. He was a drug user, who was also sexually and physically abusive. Even though it felt like a part of me had died, I had to make a decision to live my life for my children.

My family is very proud of me. I am seeing the difference in their lives. I may not have a steady income as yet as I am still working odd jobs, but I am also building up my business. Now, I am working to achieving my dreams, and I have gained confidence. I am able to talk openly and approach people who can assist me with my business. Now I can see greater plans in place, and takes steps in the right direction. I want to register my business and make sure I have all the legal requirements in place, but for now I want to focus on making sure that I have a solid business plan in place to assist me in find funding, and also networking with the right people to help me grow.

I can finally see all my dreams and everything falling into place, slowly but surely. It is such a good feeling; I have even attended Gender Links’ South Africa National Summit in Johannesburg, to share my business plans. This is only the start of great things to come in my future.