Women on Farms Project

CONTACT PERSON: Fatima Shabodien PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 32 Four Oaks c/o Bird & Molteno Streets Stellenbosch South Africa POSTAL ADDRESS: P O Box 530 Stellenbosch South Africa, 7599 TELEPHONE: + 27 21 887 2960/1/2 FAX: +27 21 887 2963 E-MAIL:fatima@wfp.org.zaWEBSITE: Women on Farms Project website Women on Farms Project (WFP) is based out of Stellenbosch and registered as a non-governmental organization in 1996. The primary constituency of WFP is women who live and work on commercial farms; women who work in the agro-processing industry are also included in this group, and children and men who live/work on farms are secondary constituents. The vision of WFP is an engendered society that treats women who live and work on farms with dignity and respect in accordance with the constitutional rights guaranteed to all South African citizens. The primary focus of the organization over the past six years has been the building of the women-led social movement trade union, Sikhula Sonke, which was constituted and registered in 2004. With a membership of more than 4,000 members, Sikhula Sonke is fast becoming established as a sector leader within the labour movement, both in South Africa and regionally.

Objectives The mission and main objectives of WFP are to:

• Strengthen the capacity of women who live and work on farms to claim their rights and fulfill their needs;
• Use socio-economic rights-based and gender education, advocacy and lobbying, case work and support to develop farmwomen’s leadership and build social movements of farmwomen;
• Promote self-reliance, accountability and sustainability of organizations so that women organise themselves, speak for themselves and mobilize resources to support their needs and dreams.

Areas of Work WFP defines its core work as training and capacity building, research, lobbying, campaigning and organization building. All of these contribute to support for the building of a rural social movement of farmwomen. WFP has seven programmes:

• Women’s Health and Empowerment (i.e. focus on HIV/AIDS, GBV, and alcohol abuse, to improve the physical and mental well-being of farmwomen);
• Women’s Cooperatives (i.e. establishment of women’s cooperatives to increase farmwomen’s independent income generation, improve household food security and enhance their collectivism);
• Women’s Labour Rights (i.e. improve the working/living conditions of women farm workers through empowering them to know their rights and act collectively);
• Women’s Land and Housing (i.e. to address the housing and tenure security needs of farmwomen, including farm worker evictions, and ensure that farmwomen are aware of the possibilities and resources within government’s existing land reform programme);
• Trade Justice (i.e. formation of strategic campaign partnerships to influence trade policies, agreements and practices in ways that benefit women farm workers);
• Social Security (i.e.to inform farmwomen of their rights (to social security) and to facilitate farmwomen’s access to social security grants)

Building Women’s Leadership is an approach which WFP uses across all their programmes through the formation of various farm-level structures e.g land rights forums; heath teams; social security information points and co-operatives.

WFP’s fieldwork has been concentrated in the Cape Winelands and Overberg District Municipalities of the Western Cape — where more than half of South African commercial farms are concentrated —while campaigning and legislation engagements entail national and international partnerships at various levels. (In 2009, WFP opened its first office outside the Western Cape, viz. in Upington in the Northern Cape). WFP is engaged in many networks at all levels, and has successfully carried out a campaign to ensure that Tescos — a British supermarket and one of the biggest purchasers of South African fruit in the EU market — does not purchase goods from farms where there are poor working and living conditions or other human rights violations of women farm workers. Also, several WFP staff and farmwomen from WFP’s programmes attended and presented at the AWID Forum in November 2008.

Capacity on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality WFP is one of the few organizations in South Africa that focuses exclusively on the rights of women farm workers, and they bring a strong feminist/gender analysis to all of their work and programs. WFP is seen as a key player in the sector and demand for their services and participation, both from their constituency of farmwomen, and other role players, remains high. A 2005 external evaluation of WFP commissioned by Oxfam Novib concluded that “WFP is a well-known organization with a strong reputation and is held in high regard by peer organizations in the NGO sector as well as other stakeholders. The organization is strongly responsive – well in touch with its external context, making it easily accessible to its target group and to its partners.”