People in rural areas do not have to relocate to the cities in order to access a better life. This message was delivered yesterday by the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Ms Lulu Xingwana at Caguba, Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape.
Minister Xingwana was in the Eastern Cape to launch the Women’s Construction Flagship Project. The project marked the roll-out of various rural development projects that target women, children and people with disabilities. These include a women’s multi-purpose centre for income generating activities, a children’s park and a memorial community hall. These interventions are meant to address the lack of recreational facilities for children and youths, unemployment, poverty and lack of skills development, particularly for rural women and people with disabilities.
“Today we are launching a rural women’s construction and flagship project, which we want to ensure becomes a sustainable development project for women in this village of Caguba”, she said, adding: “Through this project, we seek to eradicate extreme poverty and to promote gender equality and empower women. We are convinced that improving rural service delivery is important if we are to meet our Millennium Development Goals targets”, said the Minister.
The Port St Johns project is an excellent example of an integrated approach to services delivery where the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities is working in partnership with the municipality, departments of Human Settlements, Public Works, Department of Sports and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and other partners.
“As government, we want to promote and facilitate active participation of women and people with disabilities in infrastructure development and economic empowerment. It is important for us to remember that infrastructure development is for economic development, employment creation and poverty eradication”.
Minister Xingwana said that through the Port Saint Johns project, they would leave behind a team of local women who would be empowered to continue to run and manage the project on their own.
“We want to come back here one day, and arrive to a community where economic development had taken shape, a community where there will be food in households. Equipping women with skills will help us win the war on poverty and unemployment."
Enquiries:
Cornelius Tanana Monama
Tel: 012 359 0208
Tel: 082 578 4063
Better life for rural people of Port St Johns
