You are cordially invited to attend
The Zimele Annual Gala

Sunday, April 1, 2012
6:00-9:00pm
The Culinary Conference Center
161 Newkirk St. Jersey City, NJ 07306

Thanks to your help, Zimele has already been able to help thousands of people in South Africa, but the need remains great. 23.5 Million South Africans are still living below the poverty line of $47/month, or about $2/day. Our goal to raise $50,000 for the organization at our gala to aid in our goal of raising over $400,000 in 2012. This will allow us to create our desired expansion of Zimele communities, provide a marketing hug for our fair-trade products, send students to school and maintain operations. It will also help us continue to implement our core strategies: life skills training, business training, savings & loan training, administrative training, project management training, mentoring and networking.

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The project received a donation of a camera through Zimele Canada. The women were so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. They were surprised when they heard that they would have to learn to use it themselves. The Zimele staff reported that the women’s hands shook in fear as they handled the camera, one after the other, to try and take photos.

The Zimele staff see this as an empowering move. The women can now tell their own story through images. The camera will help the women gather photographs for their reports. Then they will be able to give a visual report on the situation of the children they are working with, and also show their physical and material interventions.

Photos taken by the women on the Project – On their journey to mastering the skill of photography:

ZIMELE Fair-trade exists to provide a marketing outlet for the goods produced by the participants. This is the marketing department of ZIMELE. It will be the facilitator between the independent producers (craft/agriculture/other) and the local, national and international market. 

ZIMELE Fair-trade was formed in March 2010 and is overseen by a Manager. ZIMELE Fair-trade allows for quicker sales of all the quality products that are produced by the participants. Goods are bought by ZIMELE Fair-trade from participants and then resold into markets, aiming to make a profit. The Manager works closely with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the expansion of markets. 

Product Examples

The following are a sample of our products produced by members of our crafts artisans programs which are currently for sale in flea markets, hotels, and tourist shops in Durban and Praetoria.

  

Product Quality Control

The intricacies of understanding quality control with Betta Steyn.  It takes a long time for someone to understand what we mean by quality and how to check your item for it, especially when you make for someone you may never see, as your item will go to a shop and you won’t always know or see who buys it.  What sometimes takes longer is for someone to learn how to self “quality control” and be able to assess what they have done – as we are all a bit blind to our faults and rather enjoy someone else taking responsibility for our mistakes.  But, as part of building self development it is very important for each crafter we teach to learn the ability to do their own quality control, so they pick up mistakes as they happen, saving them time and money and the frustration of finishing a product and have someone else reject it.  It takes time to teach but is really worth it and is a valuable life lesson to learn.

Orphan and Vulnerable Clild Care Project’s members are working hard in the community of Swayimani for their beneficiaries. One of the beneficiary in the project is the young boy who has ambitions of furthering his studies in the University. Mrs Ndlovu (aka MaZuma) the leader of the OVC project ccompanied Thobani Sithole to the University Of KwaZulu Natal for Career Counselling with his ambition for career choices.

Thobani Sithole is in his last year of school doing Grade 12 in Sbongumusa High School in the Valley of Swayimani. He is the eldest of seven siblings who are orphans 3 boys and 4 girls. Thobani see education as the way out of his poverty situation and to bring hope in his family that only depends on the pension pay of his granny. In his childhood he find himself having to take care of his younger siblings and to protect them. He has to accompany his granny who is struggling with alcohol abuse to the pension payout. This means he has to accompany her to the pay point during pension payout to make money is used properly for family food.

Thobani has the opportunity to go to University because of a conpationate donor from
Germany. Thobani is planning to go to the University in 2012 and to pursue a career in
Management Acounting. Mrs MaZuma accompanied him to his Career Counselling Session at the University Of KwaZulu Natal. The career counsellor advice him according to his subject choices and his performance in certain subjects. From this advice the counsellor suggest he study Bachelor Of Art and Major in two subject which compulsory includes amajor of his choice and another major with the name of the degree. The second option is the Bachelor Of Science with two majors as well. And the last option is the Bachelor of Law ( LLB). „“I’m very happy with this session and it help me understand my strengths that will help me follow the right career choice,“said Thobani.

Zimele in conjunction with Metro Community Church is pleased to announce the receipt of the 2009 Courageous Leadership Award sponsored by the Willow Creek Association and World Vision. The Courageous Leadership Award was created to inspire all leaders by honoring churches doing exceptional work bringing assistance to the wholistic needs of under-resourced communities affected by AIDS around the world.

More information:

• Award Announcement
• Evangelical Covenant Church News
• Watch the video