FARM WORKER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT UNLEASHES THE POTENTIAL OF BENEFICIARIES

FARM WORKER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT UNLEASHES THE POTENTIAL OF BENEFICIARIES

The Farm Worker Development project is an initiative by the Western Cape Department of Agriculture (WCDoA). The Western Cape has approximately 142 000 farm workers and is home to almost a quarter of the farm workers in the country.
Farm Workers and their family members are generally isolated from the mainstream social interaction and do not have regular access to life skills training and, in most cases, lack awareness of the dangers of substance abuse and the effects it may have. It is, therefore, essential to empower farm workers, as they contribute enormously towards the success of the sector.
The purpose of the project is to improve the quality of lives of farm workers and their families, by providing them with development and life skills training.

In the 2015/16 financial year, 17 Non-Profit Organisations from across the Western Cape Province were identified and approved by the WCDoA to facilitate training to farm workers and their families.

Casidra entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the WCDoA to administer the individual project funds and have entered into a Service Level Agreement with the beneficiary representatives. They will conduct quarterly project visits, liaise with project beneficiaries and ultimately provide comprehensive progress reports to the WCDoA.

During this quarter, Casidra drafted and signed 17 Service Level Agreements with different NGOs to provide training of Early Childhood Development, Prevention of Substance Abuse and Life Skills to the farm workers across the province.

The training and services include the provision of counselling to farm workers, monitoring créches to ensure the social well being of the attending children, training female mentors to educate girls and women about the dangers of alcohol and substance abuse during pregnancy. This is to prevent Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).

The training also included aspects of the rendering community-based and integrated development services, to enhance the social functioning of women, men, children, youth and disabled people on surrounding farms including the Saron area, where some of the farm workers reside.

In addition to this, other NGOs have trained seasonal workers to create greater employment stability and to enable them to take responsibility of their lives.

A youth camp to focus on their preparation for life after school was held to assist them with possible career choices.