Gone Rural Newsletter

8/8/2019 Gone Rural Newsletter

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Siyabonga "Malandela"

The Gone Rural family joins the Thorne family in celebrating the life of Peter"Malandela" Thorne. Peter passed away on March 3rd after a long illness.

Peter was instrumental in the founding of Gone Rural and supported his wifeJenny Thorne throughout the years. He built Jenny's first shop when she startedher work in women's empowerment and as the business expanded, Peter wenton to build our current retail shop and workshop.

Peter and his family have supported Gone Rural financially for many years andhis family continues to do so today.

Thank you Peter for finding such a beautiful place for us all to live and work andfor your loving and generous spirit. We miss you!

Three Generations of Women at Gone Rural


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This is the story of Anna, Dudu and Kholiwe Mathsebule, three generations ofvery different women all currently working at Gone Rural.

When a woman joins the Gone Rural family she joins for life because we believethat our women are entitled to the trust that comes with long-termcommitment. Gone Rural is a sustainable business that guarantees income for

each of our 755 women every three weeks.

Anna is eighty years of age, Dudu is forty-five and Kholiwe Mazebuko is twenty-three and each woman is involved in very different areas at Gone Rural.

Grandmother Anna is a rural producer at our Mahlabatsini group who joined inthe early 1990s when Jenny Thorne was the managing director. Her daughter,Dudu, joined Gone Rural a year later working as a producer and Dud usdaughter, Kholiwe, joined Gone Rural boMake in 2009 as the Social and HealthOfficer.

As a small child Kholiwe used to accompany her grandmother to the rural

meeting place on Gone Rural buying days and even now, when she visits hergrandmother, she helps to make the long ropes which are the base for the placemats. Kholiwe and her two cousins were raised and educated through theincome that Anna and Dudu earned working with Gone Rural. Kholiwe went onto higher learning where she completed a diploma in Travel, Tourism andMarketing.

Anna has always saved whatever she could from her earnings and this hasenabled her to build a four-bedroom home in Mahlabatsini where all hergrandchildren were raised in a safe and loving environment. Even at the age ofeighty Anna is very healthy and continues to weave mats. Her culture of savingmoney continues today.

Dudu started working full time for Gone Rural about four years ago when shewas brought in to the workshop to be the senior sample maker. Her sunny smileand willing attitude earned her a new career with Gone Rural at our outlet atSwazi Candles. Wearing the beautiful Swazi traditional dress Dudu serves ourcustomers while showing them the weaving techniques and explaining the GoneRural ethic.

After completing her education last year, Kholiwe walked in to our offices andhand delivered her CV to Yael of Gone Rural boMake. Kholiwe then volunteeredto assist Yael in organizing the orphan scholarship lists and liasing with theschools. After volunteering for three months and doing an excellent job Kholiwe

was asked to join as a permanent member of the boMake team.

The three Mazebuko women are all a vital part of the Gone Rural circle of life,each contributing in a different way to the success of this company. Many of ourproducers have two and even three generations of one family currently workingat Gone Rural and this culture of trust and sustainability is reflected in the logoof our wonderful company.


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Bushfire Raises R8,800 for Gone RuralboMake

Swazilands Bushfire Festival 2010 took place on 28th-30th May with anastounding 19,000 visitors over the course of the 3 -day weekend. 100% of thefestival organizers profits were once again donated to NGO beneficiary YoungHeroes, who also benefitted from the massive exposure and awareness drawn tothe event and its social mandate. Gone Rural boMake received 100% profits

from Bushfire Merchandise sales this year and also generated awareness of theircurrent projects and fundraised through sales of haircuts, Turkish coffee andeco-furniture at their 'shanty-chic' stand in the Bushfire Marketplace.

In line with the festivals philosophy to support local arts development, festival -goers were treated to an incredible line-up of over 430 local artists, as well as amyriad of star performances from International performers. Hailing from as faras the USA and the UK, Pan-African offerings also came from Kenya, Lesotho,Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. Dynamic new spaces such BushfiresOpen-Mic Stage, the Crop Circle and the Cultural Village allowed for emerginglocal talent to shine throughout the weekend, with established Swazi starsBholoja and Temaswati Project performing on the Bushfire Super Stage along -

side the festivals headliners.

Gone Rural's Philippa Thorne had a few words to say about the Festival,"Swaziland is such an amazing place and it is fantastic to have a platform likeBushfire to bring in visitors to the country and to create awareness about socialprogrammes such as Gone Rural. We would like to thank the Bushfire foundersfor their incredible vision that has benefited the entire country."

"Re-charge your Soul"Bushfire 2010


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Gone Rural and Gone Rural boMake collaborated with a number of Ecobusinesses to create a super stylish "Spaza Shac housing a Turkish coffee bar,accessories boutique and a solar powered cell phone charging service. The solarcharging unit was generously donated by Alternative Energy, a local companythat designs and supplies alternative power[Email [email protected]].

The beautiful 'spaza shack' was built from recycled material and was designedby Raw Foundation an NGO founded in the Netherlands. Raw Foundation is agroup of architects/designers/artists from Europe working with recycled,salvaged and donated materials. They also designed and made the eco -furniture that was also on sale at Bushfire to raise money for boMake projects.

Inside the Shack was The Gone Rural Accessory boutique selling funky banglesand jewelry, made from re-cycled cotton.

All funds raised will go towards school fees for vulnerable children in ourcommunities.

More About the Raw Foundation

The Raw Foundation is a group of architects/designers/artists from Europeworking with recycled, salvaged and donated materials, in Europe and in under-privileged areas in South Africa and Swaziland.

Apart from the obvious ecological benefits, the intention is to invest in skills -training and the incitement to creativity, rather than spending it on materials.Imbued with an environmental awareness, a drive for social inc lusion and afunky aesthetic, the Raw Foundation aims to integrate the community into theprojects concerned, through events, workshops and performances, using thebuilding site as a temporary podium.

re-using materials to re-vamp lives


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The Raw Foundation is a not-for-profit enterprise and is subsidised by privatecommissions, private and corporate donations as well as governmental fundingbodies for architecture and culture. The intention is therefore to involve localbusinesses and community leaders in each project, be that in the form offinancial support, material donations or volunteers. In this way, the buildingprocess is of, and for, the people. The Raw Foundation believes that not only

food and shelter, but also self-management, self-confidence and a creative spiritare the basic blocks of a communitys needs in order to build local resilience andcontend with the dominant consumerist society.

For more information, seewww.rawprojects.org

The year ahead at Gone Rural boMake

This is our bursaries fund's 5th year of helping the artisans children. Last yearwe supported 377 children through the great help of many of you. Lets get thesekids to school again this year. If you would like to support us again or for thefirst time, please use our internet site (PayPal) [email protected] for further details.


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Gone Rural Community Shelters

Kim Sakundiak, our friend and long-term supporter, raised funds to startbuilding a shaded place for our group meeting at Lamgabhi. The areas Chief,Mr. Hlophe blessed the project and prayed for its success. He gave us an area of400m2 and we are hoping to start building soon. We are planning to haveshades like this in each and every one of our groups meeting areas. PropertyAgents from Aldeburgh in Suffolk, UK also contributed to this fund by sendinge-Christmas cards instead of physical cards at Christmas, the money they savedwill go toward the building of this shelter.

Photos from left: Kim and Yael, Lamgabi community where the shelter will bebuilt, Julie presenting gift of thanks to Lamgabi Chief, Mr Hlope

Borehole drilled in the Mpuluzi Community

The Makhekhe community of our Mpuluzi group had their first ever boreholedrilled in February. Manzi Drilling, a local drilling firm, donated the drilling forfree. We hope that as a result of this drilling, the community will be able toenjoy the taste of and ease of access to clean drinking water. We are thankful tothe support for this project of Kevinn Paul, a tour operator from SundownerSafaris (Australia) who privately raised funds to make this project a reality.Kevinn has been inspired by the joy of the community the day the taps openedand is currently setting up a not for profit fundraising organization. Kevinn


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wants to continue to bring life in the form of water to other groups within theGone Rural family. In January of this year they presented their donationcheque to the community leaders and the areas Member of Parliament, Mr.Mavimbela.

"GEPA" FairTrade from Africa to Germany

Gone Rural started working with GEPA in 2009 after first meeting theorganization at a Fair Trade conference in Cairo. Since May 2010 Gone Ruralproducts have been available in GEPA stores and World Shops for the first time.

For nearly 35 years now, GEPA has stood for trade with a compatible social andenvironmental impact. Today GEPA is the major European Fair Trade companywith an annual turnover of 54 million Euros in the business year 2008/09.

GEPAs business partners are producers in over 150 cooperatives and marketingorganizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. At fair prices and conditions

GEPA buys food, handicrafts and textiles.

The products are not only on sale in 800 world shops and 6,000 action groups,but also in numerous supermarkets, organic food shops, business canteens andeducational institutions. Long-term business relationships under fairconditions, long-standing and trustful cooperation as well as transparency atany level of our commercial chains are typical of GEPAs relationships with theirpartners.

Over 60 % of all GEPA food products bear the "bio" seal according to the EUregulation on products originating from organically controlled cultivation, orthe Naturland seal of Germany.

GEPA does not accept genetically modified ingredients and uses only eco-friendly packing materials.

Philippa Thorne visited the GEPA team last winter in Germany to betterunderstand their operations. She arrived to over a metre of snow in WuppertalGermany. "I was really impressed with the efficient systems and organisation atthe GEPA headquarters. We will be implementing some ideas from the GEPA


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team at Gone Rural workshop so that we can improve our customer service. Asfor their products, I can especially recommend the GEPA cardamon chocolate."

http://www.gepa.de/This Month We are Loving......

Gone Rural has created a new collection of vibrant, luxurious and shimmeringbaskets made from recycled materials that include, sequins made from plasticbottles, off cut t-shirt fabric that is normally incinerated and plastic bags. GoneRural combines vibrant colours with our signature "lutindzi" grass and thesenew recycled materials to create unique products.Get the 2010 "South Africa" World Cup flag design or one of the hotcontemporary looks in pastels or acid brights!

Buy Gone Rural products online fromanywhere in the world...

You can now buy Gone Rural products from anywhere in the world direct fromthe Pure Swazi website. The products ship directly from our workshop inSwaziland so that you are guaranteed the best quality products.


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Gone Rural is a founding member of Pure Swazi which launched theirinternational website in March 2010.

Pure Swazi is a country brand initiated by a collection of handcraft companiesrepresenting high quality design, fair trade and eco-conscious principles. PureSwazis vision is to significantly grow the handcraft industry in Swaziland both

locally and internationally by providing capacity building and access to marketsthrough a unique, practical and collaborative model.

Pure Swazi aims to grow the handcraft industry in Swaziland and supportbudding crafters in their quest to grow their businesses and tap into theinternational market. To learn more and to buy onlinevisitwww.pureswazi.com.

WelcomeThe boMake team is expanding. We are welcoming Shelley Belohrad as our newprogramme operations manager. Yael will be focusing her timeonBoMakes development, fundraising and strategy; good luck to you both! Gone Rural welcomes Penny Bouwer who joined us in May, her role as Stockand logistics Manager will be of great value to the busine ss and will help us toimprove our delivery times and accuracy. In addition to her exacting attentionto detail, Penny is also known for her creative on stage poetry performances. Thanks toJean Fourie, Manzi Drilling (Swaziland) for the drilling of a free borehole.

A huge thank you to Toby Allison for his continued support and donations.

The Stephan Lewis Foundation for funding our School Fee ScholarshipProgramme.Kevinn and Kelly from Sundowner Safaris (Australia) for the very generousdonation of over E65,000.00 towards the Makhekhe Community water project.

UNFPA and FLAS for the continued support through the mobile health clinic

Kim Sakundiak for raising 2,000 Canadian Dollars for the construction of ameeting shade for our groups at Lamgabhi

Celia Sprot for her support of our School Fee Scholarship fund.

Putumayo World Music for donating percentage of their CD sales at Bushfireand our shop.

Kathleen for her constant support through work and donations.


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Flick and Son for the kind donations for our construction project.

The following people for their kind donations for our school fees bursaries fund:

Meredith Miller Vostrejs , Kerry Bruce, and Dana Swanson Switzer

Customers note:We have a new bank account number, please check the cover letter with your invoice and changethe details accordingly.

Documents

Gone Rural Newsletter