Rural Women’s Assembly sisters took three days to Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape on the 17th until the 20th of October 2023. The motive for the journey was to do a speaking session and a training in the community of Jabavu village where one of the killing incidents had occurred. In August 2023 there were two different media stories in the Eastern Cape about mothers killing their children and killing themselves after. According to the media story it is believed that the motive behind the killings is due to poverty that the mothers could no longer provide for their children. Rural Women’s Assembly had been advocating for women and children in the rural areas that are voiceless. As a women’s movement that believes in building and empowering rural communities it was unfortunate that the organisation could not have a chance to reach out to both mothers on time to motivate them about Agroecology farming skills and other ways of surviving during these times of austerity budget cuts that South Africans are currently facing. South Africa is one of the countries that faces high unemployment rate and women being amongst those high numbers. Most women have to raise their own children alone with fathers being absent to assist in supporting the needs of children.
When the sisters got to the Jabavu village they were well received by the community and the ward councillor. The three objectives behind the community outreach was to present about the peasants rights on United Declarations and Relations of the Peasants (UNDROP), Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Agroecology training. Sister Denia Jansen from Western Cape did speak out session on United Nations Declarations and Relations of the Peasants (UNDROP). The presentation was to motivate and educate women about their rights to food, right to seeds, rights to water, etc. Women asked questions to understand the presentation as they are not familiar about the peasant’s rights because they were never educated about it. Sister Thabisa Mhlahlo who is a gender based violence coordinator from Rural Women’s Assembly in the Eastern Cape did a training presentation to the community. Lastly, sister Nonkululeko Sobandla educated women about the importance of working the land in order to survive. She also mentioned the importance of seed sharing in the community. Rural Women’s Assembly sisters did not go there empty handed; they brought seedlings to share to the community of Jabavu village in Lusikisiki as a way of showing the community and motivating them to start planting vegetables in their households.
Rural Women’s Assembly was joined by DELTA (Development Education and Leadership Training Action) women from Libode village in the former Transkei to make speak out session and training successful. Both organisations believe in motivating and fighting for women and children’s rights. We also gave women a chance to have a panel interview where they shared their personal life journeys like talking about their HIV status health and some shared how they support and feed their families. Amongst the women there were also two community members that shared their challenges in the community like gossiping about each in the village is one of their biggest challenges. Women do not have centres where they will do community workshops like sewing or have a community garden to do farming together as community members. We also had an agriculture officer who joined the session and he also donated some seedlings to the village in order to fight hunger. The principal from Jabavu Senior Primary School also had words to share to Rural Women’s Assembly sisters and DELTA team that he really appreciates the effort of coming to the village to speak to other women about farming. All four children that were killed by the mother attended his school and unfortunately he had to witness the pain of losing students that he had hoped to see their future succeed in life and now it has been cut short due to the mother facing hunger and poverty challenges. The objective and outcome of the visit in Jabavu village, Lusikisiki had been achieved and now the team will make a follow up to the community to check the garden progress and community change.
Rural Women's Assembly 