Cape Town
From 2001 to 2006, the Aid to Artisans Southern Africa Office worked on a
regional USAID Matching Grant: The Pan African Artisan Enterprise
Development (PAED) program, which covered South Africa (Western Cape,
Gauteng and KZN), Mozmabique and Tanzania.
In South Africa, the PAED program benefited from the partnership forged
between ATA and the BAT Shop in Durban, affiliated with the Bartel Arts
Trust (BAT). Through day-to-day business and PAED training workshops, ATA
helped the BAT shop build the organizational and operational capacity needed
to eventually take on the provision of training and product development
services. Other program partners included The Cape Craft & Design Institute
(CCDI), Wola Nani, and Phumani Paper.
The PAED program activities in South Africa included product development
workshops, substantial expansion of existing product lines by international
design consultants, product exhibition at the New York International Gift
Fair and at SARCA, where ATA doubled its booth space size since the first
year it exhibited in 2002.
Two initiatives were developed under PAED, the Africa Market Readiness
Program (AMRP) (now called the Access Markets for Profit program (AMP) and
the Market Link Program, based in South Africa and directed towards craft
entrepreneurs across the continent.
The Market Link program promotes artisans' products through targeted
marketing missions and trade show participation at SARCDA and beyond. Both
of these programs bring together artisans on the continent to share ideas
and absorb valuable market and export related information that strengthens
their capacities and increases their market opportunities.
A crafter who attended an AMRP and BAT Shop training, said about the impact
of the training on her life: "the workshops were life changing and has
empowered me. Without this job my children would have been out of school."
Many of the BAT Shop producers interviewed said that they have built homes
and are able to pay for their children's schooling with the money they earn.
Many remain the sole breadwinners and have no other avenues of income.
In South Africa from 1998 to 2006, the program benefitted 6221 crafters, of
which 92% were women. Over R 19,779,000 (Approximately 2,69 Million USD)
of sales were generated for craft enterprises, of which 53% came from South
African markets.
"Because of the training and the increased orders we have been getting, we
have turned my grandfather's house into a workshop where we get together
every day to work together like a family business. There are 12 of us in the
group... At the training I learned so much about business and the production
of other products. I have shared what I learnt with the rest of my family
and in the afternoons with the children who speak English, help us to
translate the course notes which we discuss together. I hope the business
grows and my dream is to use the money that I earn for further education for
my children."
- Thokozani Sibisi, KwaZulu Natal 2004
