The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
ONE of the country’s most thriving women empowerment and emancipation organisations, Lupane Women’s Development Trust (LWDT) has successfully weaned itself from its donor, Liechtenstein Development Service (LED) of more than a decade.
LWDT marketing officer Mrs Khayelihle Sibanda said the organisation decided to wean itself off donor dependence and work towards self-sustenance in October last year as part of its efforts to ensure its members assume a sense of responsibility and ownership of their institution.
“After working for 14 years with a donor, LED, which was giving us financial support to develop organisational and business capacity, which has enabled us to be self-sustaining, we feel beyond funding we should be able to survive unlike most organisations or projects that die thereafter due to lack of financial support. As an organisation we are looking for pragmatic alternatives to donor funding that brings sustainability to the institute of women of Lupane,” she said.
Ms Sibanda said the move towards self-sustenance was already paying dividends with members having formed their own structures to manage their projects while also exploring various fundraising activities.
“Women are also looking at strategies of increasing their membership. The increased membership means the income that they raise also goes up. They have also set themselves a productivity target to raise a certain minimum amount individually from selling their wares or products,” she said.
LWDT has a membership of more than 4 500, out of these about 400 are weavers while the rest are into other projects such as crop farming, livestock production, gardening and poultry. T
