DON’T OSTRACIZE SINGLE MOTHERS

Swazi single mothers: do not ostracize us

   

Stiffkitten blog / Peter Kenworthy November 13, 2012

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“We believe that those who find themselves involuntarily having children should not be rejected and banned from their community. Swaziland Single Mothers’ Organization (SWASMO) is working hard to ensure that young single women are considered in Swaziland,” SWASMO said in their annual statement last week.

SWASMO is a membership-based Swazi NGO that amongst other things organizes projects and self-help groups that promote self-reliance, mutual support, mobilisation and education to try and improve the position and consciousness of single mothers by mobilising and educating poor single mothers in Swaziland. SWASMO is planning to expand both their outreach and projects.

“The fact is that SWASMO is the only organisation taking care of young single mothers and their children,” says Project Coordinator and founder of SWASMO, Beatrice Bitchong. “But we have begun giving talks on the radio to promote a supportive attitude from parents. We are also planning a march on the 8th March 2013 with the aim of sensitizing people about the problems of young single mothers. And we are planning a day care project where their children could have good meals and be well looked after.”

Church organisations from Canada and the USA have recently donated materials to SWASMO’s projects. “But we are interested in other donors who can help Swaziland’s young single mothers. They need it more than most,” says Beatrice Bitchong.

Women in Swaziland are generally heavily discriminated against. In Swazi customary law, women in effect have the status of minors and cannot get a bank loan without the consent of their husbands. Women can also be fined for wearing trousers by traditional authorities.

But young single mothers are even worse off than other women in Swaziland. Over a third of all pregnancies in Swaziland are teenage pregnancies. But teenage mothers receive little or no help from the government, their families or communities. On the contrary, when they are found to be pregnant they are often ostracised and stigmatised by their neighbours, communities and families.

“Swazi single mothers get no support from the government, they get expelled from their schools, and are rejected by their communities,” says Beatrice Bitchong. “Some young women even find it difficult to run their small businesses in their communities because of stigmatisation. People in the communities also label them as being ‘naughty, lazy, prostitutes’ and if they are beaten by their boyfriends the community police do little to help them. Their children are labelled as bastards and looked down upon.”

Swaziland’s conservative and patriarchal culture is thus used to condone widespread violation of women’s rights in Swaziland, even though Swaziland has signed the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Swaziland’s Constitution guarantees women the right to equal treatment with men – politically, economically and socially.

Wednesday’s debate in Swaziland’s parliament was a case in point. Here Swazi senators complained about the criminalization of forced marriages and opposed the protection of women from stalking.

TEENAGE MUMS TO HELP THEMSELVES

Stiffkitten

8 February 2012

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Help us help ourselves, say Swaziland’s young single mothers

Women in Swaziland are heavily discriminated against, both by law and by custom. According to the former, women in effect have the status of minors and cannot get a bank loan without the consent of their husbands. According to the latter, women can be fined for wearing trousers by traditional authorities, nearly half of Swazi men believe it is okay to beat a woman, and two thirds of young women have experienced sexual violence of some sort.

But young single mothers are even worse off than the average women in Swaziland. Teenage mothers account for over a third of all pregnancies in Swaziland, but they receive little or no help from the government, their families or communities. On the contrary, when they are found to be pregnant they are often expelled from school and ostracised and stigmatised by their neighbours, communities and families.

Swaziland Single Mothers’ Organisation (SWASMO), the only organisation to work specifically with young single mothers, was formed in 2009 in an attempt to help and mobilise young single mothers in Swaziland.

The initial idea was to form self-help to promote self-reliance, mutual support, mobilisation and education to try and improve the position and consciousness of single mothers. But mobilising the young single mothers and raising funds has proven harder than anticipated.

“Most young single mothers have a fatalistic view of themselves and society and do not believe that life can be any different or better than it is presently,” says SWASMO’s founder and project coordinator, Beatrice Bitchong. “And even amongst other women, there is resentment towards the young single mothers.”

As for fundraising, Maternity Worldwide, a Danish organisation that works with health care, financial security and protection for women and children in Africa, had contacted SWASMO in 2011 to discuss plans for supporting a self-help project financially.

“But after an appraisal in November 2011 that saw representatives of the Danish organization visit SWASMO in Swaziland, several gaps were identified,” says Beatrice Bitchong. “We need to be clear on the target group, as it was found that the existing self help groups are made in majority of elder women who still have a strong stigma against young women. And we need to establish a well-defined organizational structure. Focusing on closing these gaps was found to be a prerequisite for effective self-help projects output by SWASMO.”

But Beatrice also has the solution to these challenges. “Having young single mothers as our main target group and working to establish a well defined organizational structure is what we will be focusing on in the future. I have surrounded myself with some committed young women and we are trying to build a structure that has a clear focus on young single mothers and transforming SWASMO into a membership organisation. We will be coming up with ideas for a strategic plan and project in the near future.”

As for funding, the organisation, that has until now mainly had to rely on money from its volunteer workers, is planning a few small fundraising events, ad is considering introducing membership fees.

But as Swaziland is a poor country where two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, and where the government has trouble even paying its civil servants, Beatrice Bitchong is aware that she must also look elsewhere for funding. “We are interested in other donors who can help us strengthen the organizational capacity of SWASMO and help Swaziland’s young single mothers. They need it more than most,” she says.

HOPE FOR SWAZI SINGLE MUMS

11 May 2011

New hope for stigmatised single mothers in Swaziland

By Peter Kenworthy, Africa Contact

SOURCE

“I really have big hope for SWASMO now,” says Beatrice Bitchong, Project Coordinator at the Swaziland Single Mothers Organization (SWASMO).

SWASMO, a volunteer organisation, is the only organisation to work with the many heavily stigmatised single mothers in Swaziland, a group that accounts for over a third of all pregnancies in Swaziland but who receive no government support. When their families find out that these women are pregnant, they are often expelled from school and ostracised and stigmatised by their neighbours, communities and families.

SWASMO’s self-help groups therefore promote self-reliance, mutual support, mobilisation and education to try and improve the position and consciousness of single mothers by mobilising and educating poor single mothers in the poorest areas of Manzini, Swaziland’s main industrial town, to become self-reliant, self-aware and healthy.

“The projects are going quite well,” says Beatrice Bitchong. She says that SWASMO also held a successful march in the rural areas to celebrate International Woman’s Day together with the Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice and plan to hold a fundraising dinner party on the 28th of May at the Greater Alpha restaurant in Manzini.

And Maternity Worldwide, a Danish organisation that works with health care, financial security and protection for women and children in Africa, recently contacted SWASMO to discuss plans for a self-help project. “This is quite exciting and encouraging,” says Beatrice.

Read more about SWASMO: http://swasmoinfo.wordpress.com/

CULTURE A MISERY FOR SWAZI WOMEN

Swazi culture is a prime cause of disparity and misery for Swazi women - a culture where woman are legally seen as minors.

Peter Kenworty’s Stiff Kitten blog reports that the Swaziland Single Mothers Organisation’s (SWASMO) Christmas meeting heard about the importance of women coming together to tackle their own problems.

For a full report, click here.