This year the Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year Award has again partnered with the Wheat Women’s Fund that will ensure sustainability by assisting the winners to manage the investment of R100 000 towards their projects.
The Women’s Hope Education and Training (WHEAT) Trust is a not for profit organisation that helps to improve the lives of women and girls in the rural areas and townships of South Africa by supporting initiatives that women in the community take themselves. WHEAT sources funding for training, education and start-up costs for enterprise development projects. WHEAT assists community based organizations and projects to implement their outreach efforts in a professional and visible manner and encourages such organizations to gain accountability and good governance. WHEAT helps women become community leaders.
The Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year Award partnered with the WHEAT Trust for the first time in 2010. The Women of the Year Award wanted to involve an organisation with wide experience in community development to help the Award ensure that the R100 000 awarded to the Women of the Year winners would be spent wisely, effectively and in a way that would guarantee maximum impact in benefiting the people of South Africa.
Through working in community development and working with women-led projects, WHEAT has built up the experience needed to develop certain criteria that will tell if a project is effective, accountable and transparent, regardless of how big or small it is or where it is situated. WHEAT employs very well educated core staff with expertise in development and with thorough knowledge of working in many different communities. WHEAT firmly believes in the power of networking and the synergy that is created when people work together.
In working with the winning 2010 Women of the Year winners, WHEAT advised them on how to maximise the impact of their various community initiatives and also connected them with and provided access to other community organisations, WHEAT’s partners and beneficiary women’s groups. The same support will be provided to the 2011 Women of the Year.