Stulwane Young Women Meeting – 02 May 2024
On the second of May 2024, a meeting was held in the Stulwane village, with young women
from the area, from single mothers, young makotis and those with no children. The aim of
the meeting was to get the young women working together to improve their livelihoods,
share ideas and knowledge with each other and do something that will give them some
income while they are in their homes. The meeting was attended by 29 people, with an age
range of 20 to 49 years old. A lot of the attendeeds (about 80) are members of the VSLAs.
The meeting started by introductions from each of the women, briefly sharing what they are
currently doing for living, what their dreams are and what has been a challenge to them that
stopped them from achieving those dreams. From the responses, some are running small
spaza shops (mostly for kid’s snacks), making grass matts and selling them, retailing (buying
clothes, bags and shoes and reselling), selling chickens and eggs, doing vegetable gardens
and selling vegetables locally, beadwork, sewing and selling garments, baking and selling
cakes for local ceremonies, while about 40% of the women are not doing anything.
Figure 1: Meeting with Young women from Stulwane.
A lot of the women who are already doing small businesses wish to expand and grow their
business, but funds to expand seem to be a bigger problem, also getting a market and
people who take on credit and never pay. One makoti (Nompumelelo Zondi), who is a
member of the BLF and the VSLAs recently purchased a bigger sewing machine for her
garment making business with money that she got from the savings groups and BLF, her
dream is to expand and get at least two more bogger machines so she can start teaching
others how to sew as a business. Her story was inspiring to others who have not yet taken
any steps towards expanding their businesses as Nompumelelo is as unemployed as them
but managed to put together money from the VSLAs and BLf and bought herself a bigger
machine.
Steering the meeting into the farming direction, 3 of the young women were interested in
gardens and vegetable production for selling, they wish to start their own group for the
garden where they will all put in effort, money for inputs and labour. They have a field and
thinking of getting wood straws for fencing / to protect the crops from livestock. The
women seemed to not know much about the Boschvelders, layers and broilers are familiar
to them, so it was explained to them that the Boschvelders are more like traditional
chickens but not traditional chickens, they are for both egg and meat production even
though their egg producing capability is less than that of Layers but they are also good egg
producers. 3 of the wome have had an experience with boschvelders, so they shared their
experience with the meeting, sharing that they let them out of the house for some air, what
they feed them and how the egg production is going. The women loved the idea of these
chickens.
12 of the women were willing to take and contribute money towards buying the
Boschvelders indivisually. Asking them about doing it together (the boschvelders), the
women believe smaller groups would work better than larger groups (maximum of 3 people
per group), as they would be easier to manage and avoid free riding (in terms of labour and
financial contribution for feed) and conflicts, also, smaller groups means reduced distance
to chicken housing as the stulwane is separated into 3 sections which may results in others
having to walk very long distances to monitor and take care of the chickens if they were in
large groups. The groups would also include those that wish to have the chickens and are
willing to contribute with money but do not have a housing for chickens in their
homesteads. There are six (6) groups that were formed for Boschvelders, below are the
group lists.
Stulwane- Young
womens’ Groups
Surname
Name
Proposed No of
chicks/Group
1.
Dubazane
Nokulunga
25
Mkhize
Eunice
Ndinisani
Zanele
2.
Sibisi
Phumelele
25
Zondi
Nompumelelo
Mlambo
Thembi
3.
Hlongwane
Mbali
15
Hlongwane
Thulisile
4.
Dube
Hlengiwe
15
Mpinga
Zwakele
5.
Mazibuko
Nonkululeko
25
Buthelezi
Zinhle
Dladla
londiwe
6.
Dlamini
Lizzy
15
Dladla
Nokwanda
110 x 4 wk olds
Name
Surname
Age
Activity Currently
doing
Nompumelelo
Zondi
33
Sewing
Zanele
Ndinisani
36
Grass matts
Thulisile
Ndaba
48
Grass matts
Hloniphile
Sishi
39
Grass matts
Fisani
Dlamini
33
Grass matts
Nokwanda
Dladla
26
Beadworks and spaza
shop
Neliwe
Hlongwane
41
Clothing retailer
Eunice
Mkhize
49
Clothing retailer,
vegetables and atchar
seller
Mbali
Hlongwane
42
tuckshop
Phumelele
Sibisi
Bakes cakes
Lizzy
Dlamini
23
poultry
Nonkululeko
Mazibuko
26
Eggs and frozen meat
selling
Tshitshi
Gumede
39
Spaza shop
Andiswa
Duma
21
Trying/applying to get
into tertiary
Thulisile
Mabaso
48
broilers
Thabile
Msimango
41
Retailing shoes and
hand bags
ZInhle
Buthelezi
31
Londiwe
Dladla
34
Nokulunga
Dubazane
35
Hlengiwe
Dube
Zakhele
Mpinga
37
Thembi
Mlambo
9>35yrs
7<35yrs