Our Appeal to you

“Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether that the storm is really over. But one thing is for certain, when you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about”                                                                                               -HarukiMurakami, Kafka on the shore

These past few days have been very challenging for all South Africans both here and those living abroad, with family or friends in the hotspots. Each and every one of us is struggling with how to process what exactly happened. The devastation wreaked on our businesses, jobs and food supply is unimaginable and will have serious repercussions on our country for years.  Many of us are going through the stages of grief and right now we have no idea of how to pick up the pieces – a paralysis of sorts has gripped many, a psychologist may call it shock. So we take our hats off to those that have got out and cleaned up, made food parcels and guarded their communities as this has been a type of therapy and healing –  as if by doing this, the jigsaw of chaos will be put back together, our beloved country whole again.

The role of Woza Moya, a project of Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, has always been to be a safe place for crafters, patients and artists and our role has been to lobby for as much work for crafters as possible and to distribute it to as many crafters as possible.

Our role of late is to try and tackle the rampant employment crisis in our youth and we have offered training to youngsters, focussing on the crafters’ children, so that we can get a second income into their homes. This has been successful until COVID hit and many of our overseas and local customers shut down. This has had a huge impact on crafters as we are down to a third of our turnover which affects crafters directly.

We have continued to buy work in but on a much smaller scale and have managed to keep crafters going through group projects and exhibitions that have been funded by customers, Woza supporters and The National Arts Council. A beautiful group artwork that benefitted over 100 crafters was bought by one of our loyal customers – all crafters were trained to make 3 dimentional flowers on a three day workshop and then this beautiful piece was put together. The workshop was healing in that it brought crafters together and offered them emotional support as well as the pride and joy in creating something beautiful as a group.

Our hope is that using this quiet time to develop new products and skills will position us in a leadership position when we emerge from this pandemic and current crisis. Our hard work on our social media campaigns, increased online sales and an increased walk-in customers meant we were able to cover our costs without having to retrench staff. However, the landscape has shifted in an instant with the heart-breaking aspect of last week’s rampage.

How you can help?

I have had many calls from friends and supporters from across the world, which has been very heartening, asking how they can help. Right now we would like to keep crafters as busy and creative as possible, to keep our doors open and to supply those with emergency food parcels should they need.

• Make a general donation to Woza Moya to keep our doors open – online wozamoya.co.za via our Payfast account a safe international payment portal or via zapper https://zapper.com/url/h6k2u2qqAI or an international transfer Woza Moya Hillcrest AIDS centre Trust, ABSA bank, Branch code: 631126, current account no: 4058368206, Swift code: ABSAZAJJ
• Sponsor a food hamper for a crafter for R350
• Support our Silver Linings Campaign by buying some rainbow pins R50 for 2 – if you put them together they create a complete rainbow, we can ship them or donate them to different communities to create unity in our country. See attached information.
• Sponsor a workshop for 16 people – R15000 helps get our youngsters earning or our older crafters upskilling – we can send you action pictures of the workshops in action.
• Sponsor a group artwork R20 000 – this puts money directly in the hands of crafters. We will send you pictures as we go and your name will go with the artwork.
• Pop into our retail store or order online (wozamoya.co.za) for any gifting requirements.
• Purchase custom made corporate artwork or personal gifts.
• If you are local, donate unwanted bric a brac for our charity shop, second hand clothes and or unwanted haberdashery items.

 

Thank- you for your ongoing support, we will continue to serve our community with unconditional love.

 

Yours Sincerely Paula Thomson