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Africa!Ignite Marks A Decade Of Changing The Lives Of Rural Women And Youths
Africa!Ignite Marks A Decade Of Changing The Lives Of Rural Women And Youths
Date: 2017-10-06
On Friday night 28 September 2017, leading KZN-based rural development agency Africa!Ignite celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Bond Shed in Durban's Point Waterfront.
Partners from the National Department of Tourism, eThekwini Muncipality and the KZN Department of Arts and Culture paid tribute to an organisation which has, over the last decade, created opportunities for hundreds of rural women, youths and emerging entrepreneurs to improve the quality of their lives by acquiring useful knowledge and skills, earning a decent living and making their voices heard. Through this, women and youth become 'change agents' who ignite economic and social transformation for rural communities.
Africa!Ignite CEO Wilna Botha said that the organisation sees the 10-year anniversary as the start of a new chapter, in which Africa!Ignite intends to take rural development models that have been developed in KwaZulu-Natal out across South Africa, together with key partners.
KZN-grown models that have set national and international benchmarks for economic inclusion include the 'WOWZULU Sustainable Tourism Model. WOWZULU currently operates in 7 popular tourist destinations across KZN. Each 'inclusive destination' fuses the berg, bush, beach or battlefield experiences that are currently the main attractions for tourists, with exciting community-based experiences that appeal to a rapidly new generation of 'adventure/eco/sustainable' tourists who want to get off the beaten track, get active, meet local people and know that their travels benefit the local economy, environment and society.
It also offers opportunities for local craft producers to sell products that have been refined through design input, into the tourism market. In the process, destinations such as Durban, Ballito, the South Coast, St Lucia, the Drakensberg Amphitheatre, the Battlefields and the Ndumo/Tembe Elephant Park are able to offer tourists a richer, more diverse product offer.
Ma Solani Eunice Mtshali of Umzinyathi, Inanda: 'I'm very happy to have worked with Africa!Ignite all these years. Like other members of my craft cooperative, I have kids who can go to school because of the income that I make from selling products to Africa!Ignite and to WOWZULU shops in tourist destinations. Many of us no longer have husbands but we know that life can still carry on.'
Another proudly KZN model is the 'Telling Stories of KZN' programme, through which teams of 'storytellers' visit 80 provincial libraries across KZN annually, using a love of stories as a catalyst to promote an interest in reading for pleasure as the basis of literacy, and encouraging children and adults to visit libraries.
