Clover Mama Afrika celebrates 13 years of empowering women The Clover Mama Afrika story of empowering women started 13 years ago and has been set out to restore some of the best aspects of African tradition into modern life, such as caring for one another, passing on skills and protecting the young, the weak and the aged. Today, the project places strong emphasis on assisting women across South Africa in disadvantaged communities to learn to help themselves so that they may regain their pride, establish self-sustaining livelihoods and become valuable members of their communities and to society at large. Since the project’s inception the mamas have been able to provide viable skills to well over 2 000 individuals who in turn transferred their skills to more than 9 000 community 8
members and have been able to permanently employ 360 community members. Clover Mama Afrika is driven by Clover’s Corporate Services Manager, Professor Elain Vlok who started with a view to help the needy by helping those who are passionate about providing for and tending to the needs of their communities. Vlok explains, “One of the keys to a country’s successful economy is the empowerment of its people and who better to assist in driving empowerment than women, who are often the support of our households and communities.” The project has to date appointed 43 mamas throughout South Africa and empowers community caregivers with viable skills which they can then pass onto others, so that they too can earn a sustainable