EMPOWERMENT, INNOVATION, DESIGN, PRODUCTION
The township where the centers are located.
I visited ENZA in Cape Town, or actually on the outskirts of the city. It is a registered non-profit and public benefit organization based in the Paarl/Wellington area near the city. It aims to empower underpriviledged women and girls to build a future. It is driven by the enthusiasm of the Icelandic lady Ruth Gylfadottir. The endeavor is furthermore driven by the support of her family and friends initially and also has a circle of wider contacts in finding finance and solutions for the many tasks that are needed to change the destiny of the women and girls. They are many who are forced to give up their babies for adoption due to their socio – economic circumstances. The centre concentrates on assisting them to rebuild their lives and become economically active and self sufficient.
The mid day sleep of the smallest in Norsa
Now, they have built a very sympathetic location in the midst of a township and it is next door to a kindergarten for children that is run by Norsa, a Community Care Centre that focuses on the development of community based projects with specific focus on families and children infected/affected with HIV/AIDS, TB and extreme poverty. The Norsa center next door has 90 children. I have put some photos from this here.
Excellent class and working room in ENZA. It is recently ready for operations and has already started reading and computer classes. It will be great to follow the continuation of the project. I hope I can go and participate in some product development.
Possible product from material that is used in agriculture.
They run reading classes in the afternoons for those that have no reading skills and they are going through the development process of identifying products and services that the center can provide so as to return profit to the women that come there. The idea is to develop skills for making products that can return profit that again goes into the further development of the society there. At the same time one understands the victory when the ladies get an opportunity to leave the center with skills and diplomas for learning and walk into jobs that give salary. Small victories are often the best ones. I was so fortunate to be allowed to walk around, talk to Ruth and some people there and we quite early started having ideas about things that could be developed. The work is in many ways similar to the work I am doing with my students and ex-curricular friends in Mozambique. The greatest victory is when they leave and do not need support any more. Here are a few images from this very well prepared institute.
If and when ideas develop further I will send out some more blogs. Today I wish them all the best and hope people can think of donating something to the project. You can access that on their webpage. I have put some photos here.
April 21, 2011
Tags: aids, community centre, DESIGN, HIV, product, south africa Posted in: DESIGN
