Poverty alleviation through empowerment and participation : the Seki Women's Foundation

As poverty alleviation projects are being established in communities in order to reduce the impact of unemployment, crime, and inequality as well as other factors propagating poverty, numerous projects fail to democratically meet the needs of the poor majority. Development initiatives brought forth by government and non-governmental organisations, which adopt a top-down approach in order to accelerate development, do not always have a positive effect on the community, especially on the poor majority, which development is meant to empower and benefit. This results in the short life span of the project and leads the community into immense poverty. Thus, the focus of this research paper was to evaluate the extent to which poverty alleviation projects such as the Seki Women’s Foundation, contribute towards the alleviation of poverty in its community, located in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. This evaluation study focused more on aspects of development concerning community participation, empowerment through skills training and project sustainability. The objectives of the study were to investigate the values, aims and objectives of the Seki Women’s Foundation; how these values, aims and objectives were fulfilled; the challenges faced by the project towards effective community development and the determinants of the long-term sustainability of the project. The research study adopted a qualitative approach, which allowed the researcher to collect meaningful knowledge from the volunteers and stakeholders by conducting semi-structured interviews and a focus group which were guided by open-ended questions. The data was thematically analysed where important concepts were coded in order to obtain accurate information so that valid results could be reached. The main findings of the research study suggested that the contribution made by the Seki Women’s Foundation towards poverty alleviation and community development is to empower the volunteers and community through skills training in baking, gardening and sewing. The volunteers share these skills amongst community members, enabling them to be self-sufficient and implement the skills in their own surroundings. The project builds strong partnerships with the stakeholders by being accountable and transparent about the utilisation of funds through report formulation. Although the project implements some principles of community development, the full participation of volunteers in the development process remains a concern, especially in decision making. The challenges faced by the project are concerned with burglary of clothing containers, stealing of vegetation and garden tools and the community not buying the products sold by the project. The research study recommends that the volunteers reason with the community and instil trust and honesty to avoid crime. The project should instil authentic participation in all development processes and form a partnership with local shops in convincing them to sell their produce as this will allow some income to generate within the project and community