This year, 17 non-profit organisations and local authorities in South Africa, Eswatini, and Lesotho will receive support from the Embassy of Japan in South Africa’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects Programme (GGP) 2020.
The GGP Programme intends to contribute to the improvements of disadvantaged communities at the grass-roots level in various fields including health, education, skill training and social welfare. In the spirit of the 6th World Assembly for Women, WAW conference (the international female empowerment conference hosted by the government of Japan) to be held in Tokyo from 3-4 April, a large proportion of this year’s funding is geared towards the empowerment of women. In addition, as we countdown to the Tokyo Olympics in July and the Tokyo Paralympics in August, the Embassy will be funding several organisations that serve persons living with disabilities.
Healthcare
This year’s recipients include, amongst others, the Hoedspruit Training Trust/Hlokomela Project based in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, to which the Embassy will donate a mobile clinic to assist the women who work in the surrounding farms. The mobile clinic is fully equipped with an ultrasound unit made and donated by a Japanese company, Fujifilm.
In the East Rand of Gauteng, the Eluthandweni Maternity Clinic in Vosloorus will receive medical equipment and an ambulance to the value of over R1-million. The equipment will assist the clinic to provide affordable, quality maternal care, while the ambulance will assist in reducing maternal and infant mortality by improving access to emergency maternal procedures.
The “Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture” in the Western Cape will also receive a mobile mental healthcare clinic and two vehicles that will be used to give dignity and privacy to survivors of violence and torture.
Education
In terms of the empowerment of persons with disabilities, the embassy will fund the construction of a skills centre for children with Profound Intellectual Disabilities in Makhaloaneng Primary School, Maluti-A-Phofung, Free State. Additionally the embassy will provide renovations and a vehicle fitted with Wheelchair hydraulics for Londanani Care Centre in Makhado, Limpopo.
Other projects funded by this year’s GGP Programme include the construction of standard classrooms; the building of school science laboratories; drop-in centres; early childhood development centres; the provision of converted vehicles, the renovation and extension of skill development facilities, and provision of sustainable energy.
