|
Latest News
|
Newsletter September 2008 |
| Welcome to the third edition of the Gone Rural newsletter. We would like to thank you for your continued support in helping us achieve our goals of empowering rural Swazi women and their communities.
Read on to learn about what has been happening with the Gone Rural products, Gone Rural boMake projects, and our exciting collaborations.
| The Perfect Gift is to Give | Working together with Swazi Candles we have come up with a new gift range for Christmas. The beautifully decorative and original Swazi Candles are hand-made here in the Kingdom of Swaziland. We have packaged the candles with Gone Rural mini baskets and coasters to make the perfect Fair Trade gift. As well as being wonderful Christmas presents for your friends and family Gone Rural will also donate 10% of sales from these Christmas products to the Gone Rural boMake Orphan and Vulnerable Children School Fees Bursary Fund. If you would like to be part of our Orphan School Fees Campaign as a customer or as an individual sponsor read on…. | | | Send a child to school for Christmas This Christmas help us to send over 800 orphans to school by supporting our School Fees Bursary Fund. You can do this through buying products from the Gone Rural and Swazi Candles Christmas range and also by matching Gone Rural's commitment and donate a portion of your Gone Rural Christmas sales to this Fund. We welcome independent donors and children sponsors.
If you donate 85 US$ it will pay for one primary child to go to school for one year.
Here in Swaziland the new school year starts in January and every year there are more orphans and vulnerable children that cannot afford school fees. In 2008 we sponsored more than 800 children to go to school and the list is growing every year. Your Help Is Needed!
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
| Contemporary style with soul | | Gone Rural participated at Decorex for the first time this year as a
participant on the Design Africa stand. Design Africa is a programme to
assist world-class home decor companies from across Africa to reach
International markets. | 
| Creative Director Josef Greef created the most stunning concept stand which won the award for best stand at the show. The level of media interest was incredible with three television crews and a number of magazine journalists doing stories on the stand and companies exhibiting. For the first time our sales team were able to meet end customers and see their reaction to the products on show.
| Julie Nixon our Sales Manager at The Design Africa stand, with our new products.
| 
| An unparalleled visionary African destination | Malandelas is a uniquely creative venue in the heart of the Kingdom of Swaziland offering experiences that inspire the imagination, and refresh the spirit. Come and visit this unique destination in Swaziland where the Gone Rural Shop and workshop are situated. Meet the workshop staff, and visit a Swazi homestead in one of our rural tours, where you will meet our women artisans and their families, attend a hand weaving demonstration, and see the community handcraft project in action, accompanied by a cultural guide. Finish the day by browsing our shop for the latest tableware and interior accessories.
| 
| With a stunning view of the beautiful Mlilwane Mountains, enjoy a drink in the country pub, or a meal on the terrace overlooking the rolling Malkerns farmlands. Get yourself ready for a fantastical evening of events and live performances at the awe-inspiring House on Fire. After all that you will want to snuggle down to a comfortable and relaxing night in our gorgeous Bed & Breakfast. www.malandelas.com | Gone Rural boMake News | Gone Rural boMake is a non-profit organisation founded by Gone Rural to assist rural women and their communities with education, health and social needs. While Gone rural generates income for the women Gone Rural boMake complements this progress with its programmes. | Bushfire boosts Gone Rural boMake
| 
| Bush Fire, the annual Swaziland festival for Music and Arts www.bushfire.co.sz organised by House On Fire was a great success for Gone Rural boMake. We raised more than ZAR20 000 during the festival. The money has been allocated to the Gone Rural boMake School Fees Bursary Fund. “Part of the money was raised through sales of the new Gone Rural boMake broaches made by Gone Rural artisans for the festival”, says Yael Uzan-Tidhar, the organisation’s Programme Director, “however, most of the funds came through sales from the Gone Rural shop over the weekend and from private donors”. The fund helps the Gone Rural artisans’ children with school fees. “It was heart warming to see people wearing our broaches and happy to support our cause. Our broaches were so well received that we decided to make more and they are going to be available at the Gone Rural shop at Malandela’s”, says Yael.
Hlengiwe Mngometulu, our talented sample artisan, wearing the broach she made for the festival. | Bringing International Skills to Build Capacity
| 
| Our continued partnership with MBA’s Without Borders enabled four MBA graduates to come and work with us. We welcome Claudia Castellanos a Marketing consultant who will be with us until November developing Marketing Strategies or Gone Rural and Malandelas.
She is sponsored by The International Finance Corporation. The aim of this initiative is to increase the income for the rural women through increasing Gone Rural sales. Dana, Lara and Ling Ling came in August from USA to work on specific projects for Gone Rural boMake. They were sponsored by Deloitte, their current employer. During an intensive one month we worked on three projects; a saving scheme for the rural women, the development of a fundraising strategy and the design of management systems and database for our community projects.
From left: Lara, Dana, Claudia, and Ling Ling with Yael Uzan-Tidhar, Gone Rural boMake programme director.
We would like to thank Ling Ling, Lara, Dana and Claudia for their outstanding work. Their contribution is helping to further empower the women of Swaziland and alleviate poverty.
MBA’s without Borders is an organisation that matches consultants across the globe with social businesses to help alleviate poverty through business solutions. www.mbaswithoutborders.org | Building a Bridge to Educate Swazi Students | In August Gone Rural presented a cooperation agreement between Gone Rural and The Bridge, an Italian NGO committed to the social and economic development of Southern Africa. Representatives from both organisations were present, as well as Maxwell Jele, CEO of Swaziland National Youth Council. The main outcomes of this agreement are an economic project that will bring GR products to Italy, and to support a social project that will bring Swazi youngsters to Italy to pursue their studies through scholarships. The knowledge and skills that these students will gain will contribute to the general development of Swaziland. Unicoop Firenze, an important retailer in Italy has already agreed to buy GR products for the next three years. Gone Rural is committed to supporting Swazi youth with initiatives such as the School Fees Fund and the Youth Entrepreneurship programme. Philippa Thorne is also a mentor for the Swaziland Youth Entrepreneurship programme run by the Swaziland National Youth Council where she is mentoring two young Swazis who are starting their own businesses.
|  | Meet Our Partners
| In this section we will introduce to you one of our customers.
Global Goods Partners is dedicated to alleviating poverty and promoting social justice by strengthening women-led development initiatives for marginalized communities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We are proud to of our partnership and to supply them with our products. A non-profit endeavour, GGP pursues their mission by partnering with organizations, associations, and cooperatives worldwide that integrate their commitment to community development - specifically, improvements in education, health, women’s rights, and employment opportunities - with socially responsible income-generating enterprises. Please have a look at their website to learn more about their inspiring work and have a look at our products: www.globalgoodspartners.org/18
| Customer Care
| We would like to take this time to make a request to our customers. Very often payments are made into our account without a reference or even a company name on the deposit. This makes it very hard for us to match payments to invoices. Could we ask you to help us by using the invoice number or your company name as a reference? We are terribly embarrassed when we phone a client for payments only to find that they have paid and it also upsets our customers.
We are updating our customer details for our records which we will also use one our new website so please can you email us all your updated contact details, including delivery address, website and email.
Thank you for your help.
E-mails
Swaziland is currently having problems with the main gateway into Swaziland. This is causing some of your e-mails and our replies to be lost in cyber space. We are very conscientious about returning mail so if you haven't heard from us in two days please re-send your e-mails. | Thank You | We would like to express our gratitude to the following partners and Donors:
The Solon Foundation for committing to partner with us for the next three years and assisting us with funds for the boMake School Fees Bursary Fund.
Kya Designs, Gone Rural Distributor in California, for raising money for the boMake School Fees Bursary Fund and leading the way in encouraging customers to donate to our projects. Your continuous support is greatly appreciated.
The Luke Commission, who are currently travelling in the rural communities of Swaziland with a Mobile Wellness Clinic to conduct free eye tests and to give reading glasses to those needing them. They will also be giving HIV and general health tests. This is a great outcome for rural women who cannot afford to get tested and buy glasses, especially as they need their eyesight for their basket weaving and grass plaiting.
Vital Voices who sponsored the Advocacy Training Programme, and Women in Law South Africa who are facilitating these workshops. It was a true learning experience for the rural women.
Julie Hodgson, a homeopath from the UK, who is kindly giving consultations to the Gone Rural workshop staff and the local Mahlanya community group.
Dana Swanson, an MBA graduate that worked with us for a month, her great marketing action plan convinced herself to donate!
Anthony, Kim, Nina and David Wallis from the UK; their kind donation will see children through school. |
|
|
Clay from the Earth | We would like to introduce to you one of our Potters’ Group who live near Mbabane, our capital, in the rural mountains. These women are master potters, creating African pots and candles with a coiling technique. The process is all done by hand and by the women; the clay is dug from the ground and brought to their homesteads, where they gather together to mould and form our unique products. Their only tools are a small collection of wooden utensils, buckets of water, and a soft pebble stone used for polishing. The product is then left outside to dry in the sun, which can take up to a few days in the winter, and then fired on an open fire. The beautiful shiny black finish, reminiscent of ebony, comes from leaves in the firing process, and polish.
This technique has been passed on from generation to generation, from mother to daughter. One mother taught her four daughters when they were young the skill of clay modelling, and when they got married they all moved to join their husbands’ homesteads, but continue till today to make our pots and candles.
Our range is expanding, and soon we will launch our new clay products. |  
| | | boMake News | | | While women are learning the children are playing |
| There are many exciting things happening at boMake. We have two programmes on the go, two projects are in progress and we collaborated with the Lion club for help with donations of reading glasses to ease the weaving work for our elder artisans. We are also in touch with the local Rotary clubs for help with our water project. | Advocacy Training | | | With the great help of Vital Voices (USA) we launched the Advocacy Training project aiming at educating our artisans about the legal aspects of health and human rights issues. Introducing the laws under the Constitutions (2006) combined with the Swaziland customary law, which is still being practiced in the rural communities. The Women And Law Southern Africa team have been visiting all our groups and the response from the women is very positive. We are more than half way through the programme that should end this year. |  | | | The Play mobile | | The Play mobile programme has started last month and the children are enjoying it to the full. With the help of All Out Africa, a local volunteers agency, we prepared a box full of toys, books and educational games that even Father Christmas would have loved to have. The volunteers join the Gone Rural production team in their periodic meeting with the groups and while the mothers are busy trading their products, the children play, paint and enjoy the different games. All Out Africa, Dinkie Playgroup (a local pre-school) and Gone Rural collaborated in making this dream come true. | | | | Gone Rural News | | New addition to the team | | Hamba Khahle Dorah, Sawubona Grace
We welcome Grace Sibandze who has joined us here at Gone Rural, and wish good luck to Dorah who has left to have her new baby. Grace has a long history of customer service and has settled in perfectly as part of the team. Welcome Grace, and all the best to Dorah. |
| | | Buy Fair | | | Celebrating World Fair Trade Day | | On May 10th Gone Rural celebrated World Fair Trade day by planting an orchard of fruit trees for our local Primary School Machlanya. Gone Rural takes the commitment to Fair Trade and sustainable development seriously. We believe that Fair trade is a force for protecting the environment, favouring the sustainable use of natural resources, hand production methods and organic agriculture. We are committed to paying a living wage and working in long-term partnerships.
Gone Rural teamed up with Moya Centre, Swazican, and Swazi Candles for the day, coming together to raise awareness of Fair Trade principles. The theme of this year’s day was Fair Trade and Ecology. We collected signatures for a petition to Support Fair Trade Organisations and the push to change global trade rules to put people and planet before profit. This was then sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources here in Swaziland.
We chose to plant an orchard because it will have a long lasting effect for the children of Swaziland, providing nutritious food for the school community.
Through paying a fair price and long term relationships we put people and the environment first.
Promoting sustainable use of natural resources and biodegradable materials.
Supporting hand-production.
Endorsing environmental awareness and consumer empowerment.
For more information please visit www.wftday.org
| boMake Project focus | | Gone Organic | | BoMake has launched the Trench-Gardens-Project, an agricultural project training rural communities to establish small-scale vegetables gardens that can supply the family plus surplus yield for sale. The idea is to use compost and other biodegradable matters underneath the soil, therefore enriching a better crop. Fresh products are highly important for HIV+ people and those who are sick with AIDS.
BoMake has teamed up with the Moya Community Healing Centre for this pilot project on organic gardening.
It is starting locally in the Mahlanya area near our workshop, and is so far a great success, and we hope to raise more funds to do it in all our groups next year. Like all our projects the aim is to support the Gone Rural women and their families and communities. Every member of the family is encouraged to take part. Here we have Sibongile with her mother Cecilia Zwane in front of their garden, which is sprouting nicely. Watch this space for news from the field
| | | | Product focus |
| Inside Out |  | Our new range is all about combining materials and textures…
We have taken our Lavumisa coil technique further and are creating woven fabric baskets. These baskets are handmade from a mixture of Lutindzi grass, batik scraps and African Tishweshwe fabrics. The technique and materials make for a strong and stable basket with a difference, and the pattern and shape are the signature style of Gone Rural.
Our table runners now come in different styles; a durable African grass runner is elegantly bordered with Tishweshe fabric, while a sisal web runner is lovingly handmade from a traditional and lengthy knotting technique, with a line of colour down the middle. Both runners are available for sale.
Please enquire with Julie
| Swaziland to host Fair Trade Africa’s Conference in 2010 | | | As part of our commitment to fair Trade Julie went on a sponsored trip to Egypt, for the Fair Trade Conference, and was successful in lobbying for the next conference to be held here in Swaziland. We are very proud of the opportunity to host this event. At the Cairo conference the feedback on our products was exceptionally positive; both in the commitment to social responsibility and the outstanding quality of our designs and craftsmanship. |
| | | boMake update | | | Call for Action | | | We are requesting to all our valued customers and friends to help us complete the School Fees Bursary Fund for 2008. So far we paid for 64 primary and high school students the amount of R36, 850.00 (4,606.00 US$) in 3 of our groups. We are waiting for a reply from one foundation that will support the students of 4 other groups in the Mzimba mountains area with about R80, 000 (10,000 US$). However we still have about 80 more children who need help. This year we decided to help the vulnerable children as well (last year we helped only the orphans) and our list of disadvantaged children is rising. We are aiming at raising R200, 000.00 for the fund this year and we are R83, 000.00(10,375.00 US$) short.
If you wish to help by supporting a child or a school please contact Yael for more information and a copy of our school fees bursary fund policy. We would be very grateful for any amount donated.
| Thank you | | We would like to thank the Canadian and African Business Women Association for the generous donation towards our water projects.
We also would like to cheer Nissa Ramsay for running the half marathon in Bristol and raising funds for our school fees bursary funds.
And last but not least - The 139 women of Edlangeni 1 & 2 are sending their thanks to Kya Design and their sponsors for the clothing donation received in April.
| |
|
Gone Rural boMake non profit takes off | Gone Rural boMake (GRB) is a non-profit organization, attached to Gone Rural (pty) Ltd and supports the lives of rural Swazi women through health and education programmes. GRB is funded by Gone Rural, donor organizations and private individuals and is a registered, fully transparent and accountable organization. Gone Rural boMake is currently fund raising for its general activities and management. In July we will focus on our water projects: implementation of clean drinkable water sources near the artisans’ homesteads.
In October our focus is food security and school fees. We have begun to establish trench vegetables gardens in the artisans’ homestead to ensure a healthy and nutritious diet.
Other Programmes:
Women Literacy courses are being run for our artisan groups in Lavumisa (South Swaziland) and Edlangeni (central Swaziland). Thanks to money donated by World of Good (USA), the Canadian and African Business Women Association we have initiated these two pilot programmes.
| 
| | | Support an orphan through school | 
| The school year started in January and boMake is currently disbursing School Fees Bursaries for about 200 orphans and vulnerable children who are cared for by Gone Rural artisans. Last year we supported 113 children with their school fees and uniforms. The total donation from customers and friends in 2007 was E39971.42 (US$5700), Thank you to everyone who supported these children.
To support an orphan for one year through Primary School it costs: US$ 60.00
To support an orphan for one year through High School it costs: US$ 200.00 Help Us With A Secure Donation Via PayPal | Gone Rural wins Gold and Bronze Awards | | Gone Rural teamed up with 5 other Swazi hand craft companies to create a new concept of Swazi hand craft being branded under one umbrella. The six companies known collectively as Swazi exhibited on one stand at SARCDA International Trade Show held in Johannesburg. The Swazi stand designed by Gone Rural picked up a Gold award for the stand design. Gone Rural also picked up a Bronze award in the product category for our new Desert Collection. For the first time Gone Rural exhibited at Design Indaba in Cape Town this February. We were represented on two stands. One showcase was a collaborative design brief with Street Wires were we launched our Desert collection. We were also present on the Design Africa Stand, a Canadian and South African initiative showcasing the Best in African Design from the continent. Our New Swazi Ceramic range was very well received.
| 
| | | Income Generation for Rural Men | 
| Embracing our philosophy of upliftment Gone Rural is creating a range of metal products to be made by rural men. We have just completed training with our initial three men and have launched our first products in hand worked metals. Exipro engineers have trained the men passing on skills and knowledge while our design team have created a collection of unique products.
The hand beaten small and large copper and brass bowls are decorated with our Lavumisa basket weaving.
| New Project Director for boMake | | Hamba Khahle Zoe, Sawubona Yael
In December 07 boMake bade farewell to Zoe Dean-Smith who spent 9 years working within the Gone Rural organisation. She is now working with a number of international organisations focusing on development in the SME & handcraft sectors in Africa and SE Asia. We wish you great success in your new adventure. If you want to know more, contact her at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
We welcome Yael Uzan-Tidhar, the new Programme Director of GRB. Yael has lived in Swaziland since 1999 and has been involved in a number of NGO’s caring for orphaned and vulnerable children. She has a BA in business administration and is holding a diploma in project management. We are so excited to have Yael on the team as she has so much passion, energy and belief in the projects and for the women of Swaziland. Good luck Yael
|
| | | New Design Intern | 
| Gone Rural has a new Design Intern Programme, which will see a young energetic artistic force join our creative team. We welcome Doron Shaltiel who arrived in January 2008 from the UK. She is excited to explore sustainable design and learn about Fair Trade. Doron has a background in Fashion and Theatre Design and it is her creative spirit that will bring new possibilities to the product.
| A One Women Initiative | We are so proud to tell this story as this is our dream for all our Gone Rural women. Zodwa Ngcamphalala, from the Gone Rural Ngwavuma group, used her earnings from Gone Rural to start her own business. With money she saved from making baskets each month she bought a car battery, an electric converter and 2 solar panels. With the help of two gumboots she has created her own unit for charging cell phones in one of Swaziland’s most rural areas. Cell phones are the only communication available in the remote areas where phone lines and electricity do not exist. Make Buthelezi is charging E5 per charge and she is able to support her family through Gone Rural and now this additional income. Gone Rural boMake team met her at her house while testing locations for borehole drilling, to support Make Buthelezi and her community with the supply of clean drinkable water. So far they use the nearby river together with cows, crocodiles and hippos. Gone Rural boMake is fundraising to drill and install the borehole. Learn more about Gone Rural boMake. Help Us With A Secure Donation Via PayPal | 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
