The Selimana Women's Co-operative is made up of a group of six lovely ladies, that all come from Wattville. They meet twice a week to use their sewing skills to supplement their household incomes. Most of the ladies are pensioners, who survive on meagre government pensions, and live in households with little or no income besides their pension.
A friend of Rotary, Christie Kruger, has been working with the group of ladies as a mentor, helping them improve their sewing skills and produce items which are both useful and fun. Her main focus is to teach the ladies how to make money from almost nothing. They only use scrap and donated fabrics, like curtain sample books, so there are seldom two items the same.
The group started in a small store room at Kid’s Haven but thanks to the assistance of the Rotary Club of Benoni van Ryn they have recently moved to their very own space in Apex. This move has enabled the co-operative to be more productive. They have now opened their group to new members to share what they have learnt and to enable more ladies to develop their creative skills.
One of the co-operative's ladies, Grace Mabelane, is also active in a feeding scheme for young children in Wattville, which includes many AIDS orphaned children. The members of the Rotary Club of Benoni van Ryn are negotiating with Spoornet to secure a piece of land for this project and will assist in developing a community centre on the property.
Every purchase makes such a huge difference in the lives of these dedicated ladies.
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