Isibani Sethemba
Isibani Sethemba empowers local communities affected by poverty and HIV in Ingwavuma, a rural community in the far north of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Unemployment is estimated at 60% and 49% of families have no steady income at all. 35% of households still don’t have access to water and sanitation. The HIV infection rate is estimated at 22%. AIDS-related illnesses were the leading cause of death among adults for many years, leaving many children not only without parents, but with little or no extended family. Grandmothers are often caring for several of their grandchildren.
This context results in many children not attending school and instead being employed for child labour. In recent years, most regions in South Africa have experienced drought and Ingwavuma is one of the areas that has been most affected. This has worsened the extreme poverty and misery that people face.
E3’s partnership:
Supports 450 orphaned and vulnerable children and in particular grandmother-headed households. This includes creating community food gardens to help families provide for themselves in a sustainable way.
Enables church strengthening activities, including income generating activities for 136 local pastors so they can earn a living and provide for their families, as well as marriage counselling and training workshops.
Runs sexual and gender-based violence workshops for pastors and community leaders.
Has educated 594 women who look after orphaned and vulnerable children to save part of their government social grant to help with education costs in the future for those children.
Completed a water project in four communities, improving the water supply so they have clean drinking water. People used to walk long distances to collect dirty water from streams and lakes. Two vegetable farms now have proper irrigation systems too.
Supplied Bibles to 37 pastors with another 99 pastors waiting for a copy of the Bible.
Grant from E3: £10,000
Kenneth Macheri is the Director.
Following an E3 pastor training workshop, a group of pastors worked together to start a vegetable garden. E3 funded a pump to bring water from a nearby river. They are planting beans and potatoes and will use the proceeds from what they sell to help support their families. Like all the communities in which we work, pastors do not receive wages from their local churches and struggle to earn a living to support themselves.
