Page 92 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

Gender
MY FIGHT FOr WOMen TO HAVe
seCUrity of tenUre, BeGAn At home
Gaylene Koopman, former volunteer (left), Naomi Betana (left) and Emma Goliath (right) discussing
Florina Farmer (client helped with housing) and Sarina Fortuin (LDA) assisted her with child support grant application).
Emma Goliath (right).
housing for women in Ceres with Joyce Mlungwana (centre).
eMMA GoliAth
HAVING THE CERTAINTY OF A SAFE AND SECURE SHELTER IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF WOMEN’S EQUALITY. EMMA GOLIATH’S QUEST TO HELP FIND SECURE ACCOMMODATION FOR VULNERABLE WOMEN IS ROOTED IN HER CHILDHOOD.
SCAT and I are celebrating our last year of youth. Both SCAT’s story and my story are love stories because everything SCAT does and I do in development is with and for love. My desire to be involved in the community and help women stems from my childhood. I was born on a farm about 4kms from where I currently live in Ceres. The day after my birth my grandmother came to fetch me and my mother as she did not want her first grandchild to live on a farm in harsh conditions. I am the eldest of three children of a single mother who worked in Cape Town. My mother was not coping with all the responsibilities, so I was raised by my grandmother who was asked by her aunt to come and take care of me. Later my mother was involved in an accident that left her blind in one eye and without the use of her one hand. My grandmother knew she had to take her in too and she had to move back to Ceres.
My grandmother is generous, always keen to look after other people and this meant that her house was always a home for family members and others who had nowhere to go. It was busy and fun, having all my aunts, uncles, cousins and friends that became family, around us all the time. It also meant a lot of hard work and no privacy. There were always people around and we were always sharing spaces and food. We usually fed more than seventeen people at a meal which meant lots of cleaning, scrubbing and washing dishes.
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years