The Vodacom Foundation recently announced plans to continue its digital literacy programme for women farmers in every province, following the “successful” pilot in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, and Eastern Cape.
After the launch of the pilot project last year, the partnership with the Vodacom Foundation, UN Women and South African Women In Farming (SAWIF), strives to bridge the current digital and information gap in South Africa by equipping women farmers with the digital skills and knowledge to run their businesses better.
Through the pilot, Vodacom Foundation managed to empower 600 women small-holder farmers with digital skills training.
The chief officer of corporate affairs at Vodacom, Takalani Netshitenzhe, told a room of women farmers and various stakeholders that it was time to celebrate women who have decided to claim their rightful place in society using technology. She said, “The Vodacom Foundation work is rooted in uplifting the lives of people in disadvantaged areas.”
The Vodacom Foundation contacted the Department of Basic Education, through which it has connected over 90 teacher centres and youth academies. Vodacom provides ICT training to the teachers and the youth at these centres. Netshitenzhe said, “We encouraged the people in the communities, where the teacher centres are, to use them as a community-based centre. We are now rolling out this programme to other provinces, and because we are guided by SAWIF, we have asked them to tell us their needs in order to determine how to partner up.”
The next phase seeks to lessen the role of SAWIF in order to give women independence and direct access to the market. Nethitenzhe said, “We will leave this to be their choice. Those women who will still want to transact through SAWIF will still be able to do so, and those that want to transact directly with the bigger market players will have an opportunity to do so.”
