Our mantra? “Never waste a crisis!”
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 09:00AM 
We can’t underestimate the positive strides that women in South Africa’s official political offices have made. For example, South Africa has a gender caucus, which is a multiparty platform for women in politics. It also has a Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disability.
South Africa has passed the Equality Act, the Domestic Violence Act, the (Child Support and Child) Maintenance Act, the Civil Union Act and the Sex Offenders Act. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played a significant role during the consultative processes leading to their passage. Also, South Africa has among the highest percentage (33 percent) of women serving as Members of Parliament and Ministers of national ministries.
Economically, South Africa has an increased number of women who are chief executive officers and women serving as commercial board members. There is tangible evidence that women are drivers of economic growth through their spending power. Also, the spending power of the poor is now being recognized by businesses, and funds for development are flowing through businesses of women who are working at the grassroots level. Additionally, NGOs put considerable pressure on the private sector to include rural women in their corporate social responsibility programs.
For staff at WHEAT Trust (Women’s Hope Education and Training Trust) – also known as WHEAT Women’s Fund – development is a positive term. It refers to sustained growth, progress and planned expansion for the benefit of women.
WHEAT experienced the effects of the global economic downturn and got a double whammy when already reduced corporate sponsorship was withdrawn entirely in favor of sport sponsorship coinciding with the World Cup soccer games. Clearly, women would again bear the brunt of the downturn and reduced funding. However, borrowing a saying from an American sister, we embarked on raising our profile with renewed vigor and a mantra of “Never waste a crisis!”
We started educating individual givers about the importance of supporting women’s funds, and we were pleased that our fund received its first 1 million rand donation ($127,933) in 2010. We also have increased our corporate income, formed new corporate partnerships and retained our past partners at the same level of support. So, I must repeat what I said at the start: “We can’t underestimate the positive strides that women in South Africa have made!”
Reader Comments (1)
When the Fifa World Cup went to South Africa this year it really shed light on the continued issues there. This is a great article, thanking you for sharing the amazing information about WHEAT and the World Cup Games.
Cheers,
James
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