Our Mission

Siyakhulu Rural Women Trust (“Siyakhulu”) was born of a desire by local agricultural processors to provide the communities that comprised their staff with substantive empowerment opportunities.

The Trust made a concerted effort to steer clear of the pitfalls of “tokenism” empowerment, for the benefit of a few, already wealthy individuals. Instead, it developed a strategy to provide real and practical empowerment for actual members of the surrounding communities.

Through these efforts, Siyakhulu has been able to provide training and skills development programs to more than 100 women, directly stimulated active personal entrepreneurship to more than 1,000 rural women, provided on-going life-cover for more than 100 rural community members, and launched an internship program that receives hundreds of applications per year.

In addition Siyakhulu actively encourages community involvement through mentorship and community outreach.

By acting as the catalyst for all of the above, SIyakhulu has realised the very definition of its name: