Page 84 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

Gender
HOW I eMPOWered OTHer WOMen
throUGh empowerinG myself
Kefuwe Mabothe, Thembinkosi Hlathi and Mount Fletcher Advice Centre. Kefuwe Mabothe helping a client. Makotuleng Leboto.
MAkotule leboto
MAKOTULE LEBOTO WAS LOOKING AFTER HER TWO CHILDREN AT HOME WHEN SHE jOINED A SAVINGS CLUB ORGANISED BY THE MOUNT FLETCHER ADVICE OFFICE. THROUGH THE ADVICE OFFICE SHE STARTED ATTENDING TRAINING WORKSHOPS WHERE HER STRENGTHS AS A COMMUNITY ORGANISER WERE RECOGNISED AND DEVELOPED
I am the fifth child of seven children. I stay in a village called Fletcherville, near the town of Mount Fletcher, in the Eastern Cape. Mount Fletcher is a place beautified by green pastures, surrounded by mountains that are covered with mist. Both Xhosas and Sothos live here, people who have deep respect for their language, culture and tradition. Because many men are migrant workers, 55% of the people who live here are females and 45% are males.
I was an unemployed mother, who was raising my two children, a boy and a girl, at home. A savings club organisation of the Mount Fletcher advice centre was visiting our villages, to try and improve our communities. Our community was full of debts. In 2011 the Advice Office introduced a social economic programme in order to help people leave loan sharks. People’s pension cards and identity documents were kept by loan sharks in order for the person to come back and pay off their debt. I became one of the people that started the savings club and invested. I was appointed the secretary of the group, with sixteen women and four men. The coordinator of the organisation loved my passion for the group and she asked me to come to the next training at their office which was about dealing with domestic violence. It was a programme of victim empowerment that gets support from the department of social development. The aim of this training was to see who has the ability to take this knowledge of abuse to families. At this training I spoke out on abuse because I see it happening all around me. It is so bad that people are killed by their loved ones. After attending this training, I was employed by the Mount Fletcher Advice Centre.
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years