Words & Photos OneLove Africa Foundation
OneLove Africa Foundation (OneLove) is a Victoria-based registered charity that builds the capacity of remote African village women through entrepreneurial training, facilitating the start-up of peer-lending groups and ongoing mentorship.
Since its inception in 2010, OneLove has been responsible for the start-up of over 3,300 village ventures, positively impacting the lives of close to 10,000 women, children and families that live in extreme poverty.
In 2010, founder Suzanne Dane visited Tanzania for four months with a group of university students. In a very serendipitous way, she ended up brainstorming with the founders of a health organization who were trying to find ways to continue their outreach program after funding was impacted by universal government cuts. Forty-eight women village leaders had been acting as advocates for medical caravans that were visiting the villages. While they were not paid wages, they received money for transportation (a major issue in developing countries). Recognizing that many of the women either owned a business or wanted to start one, the thought was that they might continue if they received entrepreneurial training. The decision to move forward was enthusiastically unanimous. While the first couple of years involved Dane packing up her suitcases and personally delivering the six-week program, it has now evolved to being a registered NGO in Tanzania with seven trainers and community coordinators and an integrated train-the-trainer program used by other NGOs throughout East Africa.
OneLove receives no government funding and is fully dependent on the generosity of private donors and community fundraising. As one solution, in 2000 Suzanne started a social enterprise – MOJA Boutique, that continues the support saga on this side of the ocean. She supports women in Tanzania by purchasing unique African fabrics, brings them back to Canada and employs local Victoria women who have barriers to employment to sew high quality home décor and fashion accessories that are sold wholesale, online and at markets. After the sewers are paid wages, 100% of the proceeds go back to fund new entrepreneurial programs in Africa. Women supporting women – locally and globally!
Dane feels their success in Africa is because they maintain ongoing relationships with the groups they train. This allows them to develop new materials and curriculum to meet the evolving challenges as the businesses grow. A new program launches this year – emPOWERmore is a one-year program where OneLove will continue to meet with graduate groups quarterly to not only offer additional business training but also life skills training (i.e. human rights, women’s health, how to deal with sexual violence and vocational training such as beading, soapmaking and raising livestock).
“Apart from the economic empowerment and seeing daily needs being met and children being able to attend school, I love seeing the look on the mamas’ faces when they realize that, although they have no education, they are not stupid and can grasp important concepts,” Dane says. “It brings them so much joy and confidence.”
www.oneloveafrica.org; www.mojaboutique.com.
