By Steve Driehaus | Founder and Advisory Board Chair, Swazi SHEROES
February/March 2022
Dear Friends,
We are pleased to share the following updates on the progress of Swazi SHEROES.
As you know, Swazi SHEROES was founded with the purpose of economically empowering women and girls who are living with high risk of HIV/AIDS in Eswatini. The objective of the program is to provide resources, mentorship, and education to ultimately equip program participants with entrepreneurial and workforce skills that translate into viable, sustainable, economic opportunities in order to mitigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Since our last update to you on Swazi SHEROES, the women in the first cohort have made great progress through the SHEROES program. Their success has demonstrated the critical importance of the program and has been instrumental in paving the path forward for Swazi SHEROES to help more women and girls. Also, since our last update, the country of Eswatini has experienced extended periods of intense tension and turmoil. However, SHEROES has managed to continue its operations and programming through this time - thanks to the amazing work of our SHEROES Team on the ground in Manzini and the generosity of our supporters and friends like you.
From a production standpoint, SHEROES has participated in seven pop-up craft markets over the past few months resulting in over 30 sales! The product lines have expanded as participants have increased their skills to be able to craft three different bag styles, as well as floor cushions, pillows, and placemats. The program is also in the process of developing participants’ skills in order to produce many different clothing items to create different clothing lines – from baby lines to adult fashion – with production scheduled to start in the coming months.
From a programming perspective, recruiting efforts have remained strong and been extremely fruitful. Sixteen young women are currently planning to join the next cohort of the SHEROES program, and an additional 8 young women have committed to join the current cohort. We are also incredibly excited to announce that two of our initial cohort members, having gained confidence and life-skills from the SHEROES program, have successfully secured full-time employment to provide for themselves! This is definitely a great accomplishment for them and a great stride for the program!
I would like to thank you again for generously supporting the startup of Swazi SHEROES. Your steady support continues to make Swazi SHEROES possible.
We look forward to continuing to update the SHEROES support community with more positive headway!
With gratitude, Steve Driehaus on behalf of Swazi SHEROES
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