BY FIONA MOTSA
MBABANE– One Billion Rising Campaign has received food donations from The Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in efforts to support the organisation.
Taiwan has further partnered with One Billion Rising in an effort to improve the lives of women and girls in rural areas economically, politically, and socially.
The partnership is inspired by the need to focus on gender equality, poverty reduction, and inclusive economic growth, projects focused on empowering women on entrepreneurship skills and knowledge to ensure that the lives of rural, under provided women and girls are improved.
Ambassador Jeremy Liang praised One Billion Rising for spearheading a campaign set to fight against Gender-Based-Violence (GBV) in Eswatini and said that the embassy was always ready and delighted to join other organizations in support of such great courses.
One Billion Rising Africa Regional Coordinator Colani Hlatjwako extended her deepest gratitude to the Embassy on behalf of all stakeholders.
“We are grateful to the embassy. This is not the first time we have received such support as the Taiwan Technical Mission also offered training on entrepreneurship to 40 grassroots women,” said Hlatshwako.
Hlatjwako also mentioned that the organization recently hosted an event.
“Our event was themed ‘Journey Hope Rising Artistic Convention’ which was held on February 11, 2023 at Mavuso Trade Centre, to fight against GBV.
“We had over 3 000 women, men, and the youth from different communities. The food parcels and women’s training were introduced to 25 constituencies as one of the initiatives to help support the government to fight against gender-based violence,” said Hlatjwako.
A number of women had great testimonies about the capacity building.
Zodwa Zungela from the Emhlangeni community said ever since she received training she was able to empower members of her group on the skills that she learned on how to grow businesses “One Billion Rising Campaign and Taiwan Technical Mission educated me on keeping financial records and how to market my business which has helped me make enough profit to continue with the business. This is a skill I am continuing to pass on to other women in my community,” said Zungela.
