SIR LOWRY’S PASS GOLDEN THREAD OF HOPE

An innovative women’s job-creation project in Sir Lowry’s Pass village in the Western Cape is helping formerly unemployed women pay their children’s school fees, provide their families with more nutritious food, buy furniture and household equipment and even, in some instances, buy homes of their own.

Starting from a garage with just four women in 2003, the initiative, in which women thread, knot and brush out the golden braided tassles that adorn the neck of every Amarula bottle, now employs 85 women including young mothers, as well as grandmothers.  The group supports a further 300 people from the Sir Lowry’s Pass community with some of the women even managing to send money to their families in the impoverished Eastern Cape.

Amarula, known as the spirit of Africa, is South Africa’s most widely distributed liquor brand, selling in 103 countries worldwide.  Made from the marula fruit that is indigenous to Southern Africa, it has been ranked as one of the world’s fastest-growing spirit brands by Drinks International, based on data researched by Euromonitor.  The women produce millions of tassles a year with the support of the not-for-profit Amarula Trust established to promote social and geo-physical sustainability.

Toni Rimell, chairperson of the Sir Lowry’s Pass Community Empowerment Project who has been managing the tassle initiative since its inception, says the women are paid based on the number of units they produce.  This gives them the flexibility to work in their own time and so maintain their commitments to their families.

They operate from the village’s centrally located Inn, a large, privately-owned facility, which is within easy walking distance, which means there are no additional transport expenses.

“Many of the women are not only working for the first time in many years, despite the protracted recession, but even with their relatively modest income derived from the tassles, have been able to save hundreds of rand every month for the benefit of their families and their homes.

“We have also now expanded to such an extent that we are seeking financial support to create a dedicated facility where the women can work and also receive training in additional life-skills, including as proficiency in English.”

Toni says the Amarula golden tassles not only provide the women with much-needed income, but have also given them access to the empowerment project’s other activities, including exercise classes and training in better parenting and community counselling so they can extend support to more people within the community.  “This project has become a springboard for their intellectual, spiritual, physical and emotional development, which equips them with some of the resources to help stem community vulnerability to such problems as teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, illness and disease.”

Amarula Trust’s Lorien Kee said the tassles were a small but highly effective way of enhancing the lives of the people in Sir Lowry’s Pass village: “While the trust gives extensive focus to elephant conservation, we also support enabling projects intended to help marginalised rural communities find ways to break the impact of poverty.”

For further information on Amarula Cream please visit www.amarula.com and on the Amarula Trust www.amarulatrust.com.