LWAMONDO – Eight women from Lwamondo–Matatani could not fold their hands and watch as the unemployment bug continued to terrorize the community. Instead, they came together in 1998 to form the Lwamondo Community Project. Their hard labour is paying off because they can at least get something to take home.

Their project consists of a bakery, a juice manufacturing plant and achaar distribution - thanks to the Vhembe District Municipality Development Focus, who sponsored them with a modern building and baking equipment.

The chairperson of the project, Mrs Helen Ndou (67), said discussions on the establishment of the project started at a local church on 24 September, 1998. “We agreed that each woman had to pay a R32 joining fee while we were identifying the type of projects we could engage ourselves in. We were more than 30 by then, and most of the members ran away when we requested them to pay a further R50 for three months, in order to uplift our financial standing. We decided to make bread although we did not have ovens and a proper place to work in. We constructed mud ovens and used fire wood to make some bread and community members supported our initiative.”

She says the project members do not have a basic salary, but their compensation depends on the sales of their products in a particular month. Helen said life for their project changed in March 2003 when the Vhembe District Municipality Development Focus told them that their application for funding had been approved.

“We now have a proper working place and modern machinery to conduct our services with ease. The municipality also trained us in basic baking and accounting skills.” Although the project has massive support from the local community, Helen says they still need more machinery to produce enough confectionery to the public. She says they have not been granted any tenders to supply their products in bulk, but they only sell straight to the public.

Another member of the project, Rose Mudau (76), says her life has changed for the better since she became part of the poverty alleviation initiative. She advised other unemployed rural women to wake up and organize themselves to improve their lives.