Umvini Community Foundation
Umvini Community Foundation reaches out to children and older people in need in Pietermaritzburg and Harding in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A high number of children drop out of school because of poverty, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse and lack of financial and emotional support at home. Meanwhile, most older people must fend for themselves and care for their grandchildren at the weakest time in their lives. The children are either orphaned or their parents have gone back to school as teenage mothers or left home in search of work in the city.
E3’s partnership is helping:
Support more than 180 orphaned children with school materials and life skills classes through Back to School.
Run workshops with pastors, community leaders and local people to tackle the huge issue of sexual and gender-based violence.
Construct a new pre-school building with 3 classrooms, a kitchen, 6 flush toilets and an office so that orphaned and vulnerable pre-schoolers who would not otherwise have access to early years education can have the best start in life.
Support senior citizens through home visits, medication screening, cleaning, exercise and taking them out for lunch for special occasions.
Run a chicken farm to supply affordable quality meat to the local community. It has created jobs for 5 church women and will provide sustainable support for children on the Back to School programme. Umvini is also looking at other income-generating activities to create sustainable jobs for local people.
Provide career guidance to young people in Grade 11/12 and who have left school.
Grant from E3: £9,000
Sustainability loan of £2,300 in 2020 to boost the chicken farm so it generates more income to help fund Umvini's work.
Pastor Vuyani Dlamini leads the project.
1,000 chickens are ready to be sold every 6 weeks. The income generated helps fund Truevine’s ministry and employs local people. The ladies who work for the chicken farm were trained and have developed new skills. They say they are enjoying earning money so they can provide for their children. The security guard is a young man and is excited to be able to work and save some money for the future.
“The church is the right place and a safe space for conversations around gender-based violence. We can play a pivotal role in society to address and tackle this scourge. Now we have started here today, we should not stop.”
Umvini Community Foundation and E3 hosted a gender-based violence (GBV) workshop on 9 March 2022, which was attended by 35 people, including the leadership of Pastors Fraternal, community leaders and members of the community. The workshop was the first of four planned with Umvini this year, aiming to create awareness and equip local pastors to join forces in addressing the huge issue of sexual and gender-based violence. We aim to break the silence and sensitise church and community leaders to begin creating safe spaces for GBV survivors to receive help and support.