Your
August 2015 – Issue 2
Matters
English
The community paper to whom your wellness matters.
ten
MEDIA PUBLISHING
WOMEN AND WELLNESS By Janine Fortuin
The WHEAT Trust is a women’s empowerment organisation that provides financial and technical assistance to grassroots women across South Africa. For the past 17 years, we’ve found and funded marginalised women who are unable to access formal funding due to their socioeconomic position. We also provide skills training and education to women around issues like gender-based violence, and their sexual and reproductive health rights. Women of the WHEAT team.
GRANTEES AND WELLNESS At WHEAT, the holistic wellness of our grantees and the communities they serve are key, thus we give grants to organisations such as the Women’s Holistic and Support Programme (WHASP) in the Capricorn (Vrygrond) informal settlement just outside Muizenberg in Cape Town. In this community, unemployment, poverty, gender-based violence and sexual abuse are the order of the day for most women. WHASP operates out of various venues, be it schools or counsellors’ offices – just about anywhere a project is required – providing emotional and psychological support to grassroots women. They are motivated to empower women in their community. These women are often not seen as the heads of their households, yet are the ones who manage the day-to-day functioning thereof. WHASP argues that these women provide care and support to their families, yet often
there are no support or care given to them. A lack of care impacts women’s wellness. WHASP has determined that many of the women they provide care to often do not eat during the day, although they provide meals to their families, and even going to the bathroom becomes a rushed affair. Many women – not just the women from Capricorn – find that they often do not have the time or space to sit down and plan their day, as their responsibilities begin from the minute they wake up. Women who manage families and a career often find themselves at work, but their mind is thinking or stressing about personal responsibilities. “Many female caregivers were seeking help ... they felt alone and stuck in a deep hole and so desperately wanted to get out!” says Taryn Nicholas, WHASP founder and chairperson.
Through WHASP, WHEAT Trust has committed to empowering the individual and their communities by granting various support structures which facilitate personal growth and well-being. Through WHASP’s weekly counselling and wellness sessions, women are given the chance to breathe and engage in a safe space, affording them a much-needed moment to process thoughts, think clearly and be more productive and creative than they would be without it.
Recognising these multiple responsibilities of women caregivers, WHASP seeks to provide safe, non-judgemental spaces where women can access support and care.
WHEAT Trust is located at 20 Devonshire Road, Wynberg • Email: communication@wheattrust.co.za • Tel: 021 762 6214
1 Women and wellness
3 Getting the Cape in shape
6 CANSA is going 8 Men’s role in the distance this breastfeeding August
2 Editor’s letter
4 Women and heart disease
7 Give your baby the best start
IN THIS
ISSUE
WHASP’s vision is the creation of an entity that offers and provides various support structures, wellness, knowledge and empowerment, where women residing in impoverished communities can strive toward a dignified life. “In teaching women the skills of empowerment, we uplift the mothers of this nation in every aspect of their being,” says Taryn.
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