THE rural women of Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape continue to feel the brunt of poverty, with most still fetching water from nearby rivers, walking long distances to collect firewood and their only means of income being government social grants.

Flagstaff forms part of Mbizana local municipality and falls under the larger OR Tambo district municipality.

 The region is characterised mostly by rural settlements, with a population of about 300000. Most residents live on a monthly income of below R2000.

 Fifteen years after the country’s first democratic elections, most of the houses, which are built mostly of mud, remain without electricity.

 The government’s monthly grants of between R240 (children) and R1010 (old age) offer some relief to women such as Nokhanya Mokuolo and Busiwe Bomela, both single mothers raising five children each.

 Margaret Jiri, a microfinance senior lecturer at the University of Venda and a board member of Women’s Development Busi- nesses (WDB), a development bank for rural women, says women in rural areas usually feel the brunt of absolute poverty.

 She says rural women tend to have weaker land rights and when they do enjoy such rights, their limited access to farming assets or acquiring capital from banks makes it difficult for them to become active farmers.

 She says in order to fight poverty there is a need to empower financially women and to stimulate an entrepreneurial spirit within them.

“There is a need to provide women access to financial and nonfinancial support, to help them grow if they are running informal businesses,” Jiri says.

 She says it is difficult for women to obtain finance from traditional banks because most of them do not have a viable credit history or enough collateral required by those banks.

The WDB, in partnership with Anglovaal Industries (AVI), launched a microfinance office in Flagstaff this month to help local women obtain microloans for their small businesses.

 The bank was co-founded in 1991 by former first lady Zanele Mbeki, political activists Gertrude Shope and Sally Motlana to provide affordable loans to small rural businesses run by women.

 Nomalanga Masumpa, WDB’s fund development manager, says to qualify for the microloan, women need to organise themselves into a group of five.

 She says microloans of between R300 and R10000 are available to assist women who sell anything from vegetables to chickens, so that they can expand their businesses.

 “Our portfolio risk has never been more than 2%, meaning that we have a repayment rate of 98%,” she says.

 AVI, which owns Trinco Teas, has committed R1,2m to the initiative, which is aimed at increasing household income and developing the economy of the area.

 Trinco brand manager Stephanie Hoy says the Bizana region has been neglected for many years and the new branch will assist women to become self- employed, open savings accounts and also provide financial education for beneficiaries.

 Mokuolo says the loan will help her to improve her clothing business. “I will expand my business, and be able to feed and pay school fees for all my children.”

 Bomela takes pictures with her old-fashioned camera and sells them to local people. Most of her customers are people who need identity photos.

 “My husband died in 2000 and left me behind to raise our five children. In most cases, we depend on the government support grants. This loan will help me to expand my business even further.”

 chilwanel@bdfm.co.za