Mustard Seed Africa
Our Projects
Shelela
The Shelela Body Balm project is a collaboration between the Shelela Ladies t/a Purple Industries (led by Phumzile Simelane), Swazi Candles and Mustard Seed Africa. Shelela Body Balm is a rich natural, hand-made moisturizer with organic ingredients produced by peri-urban women in Swaziland as a means of earning an income. It has no artificial ingredients or colourants and the ingredients include Beeswax, Lemon Grass Extract, Rose Geranium, Marula Oil and Olive Oil. This is a community development project coordinated by Mustard Seed Africa to assist the Shelela Ladies earn a regular and sustainable income.
Health and Wellness Day
We have an annual Mustard Seed Africa Health and Wellness Day where we coordinate various healthcare providers such as the Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) and Swaziland Business Coalition against HIV and AIDS (SWABCHA), Swaziland Breast Cancer Network, Swazi Eye Services to provide mobile health care services and HIV awareness training for rural women. Over 600 women have benefited from this initiative to date.
In 2010 we partnered with Rotary to work on the Mustard Seed Africa Vision Project. This is an initiative to provide eye testing and provision of glasses for rural women in Swaziland. 130 rural and their eyes tested and prescription glasses provided by by Swazi Eye Services and funded by Rotary Mbabane-Mbuluzi Club.
Nandi Nandi
Nandi Nandi “Maputi” is a wholesome preservative free maize snack rich in fibre, energy, carbohydrates, protein, iron and vitamin B. It is a snack that originates from Zimbabwe and is a hunger buster. The 150 women who are part of Litsemba form the distribution network in the rural area they live in and are responsible for finding markets for the maize snack, enabling them to earn an income. Their target market includes schools, colleges and wholesalers.
Litsemba Mtiya Threads
The artisans of Litsemba are now producers of recycled bookmarks which is now their means of earning a regular income. This was inspired by author Gail Masondo who commissioned the women to create bookmarks for her book “Now this feels like home”. Denzil and Pauletta Washington purchased one of the bookmarks for $500 at the launch with a note to the women encouraging them to keep up the good work in uplifting their communities.