Exploring the experiences of abused woman and their participation in entrepreneurial skills training programmes as a tool for empowerment of the self and their families in the Western Cape

Abstract

South Africa as a country currently has the highest level of unemployment, as well as the utmost frequency of gender based violence perpetrated on women. This study explored how the use of an entrepreneurship development programme can be used to empower unemployed women with histories of abuse. While most women in South Africa have experienced some abuse in their lifetime, the burden of unemployment can render them helpless and disempowered. Most of them, raising their children alone while unemployed and living in poverty, experience life as a struggle with the inability to afford and provide life's basic necessities for themselves and their families. In an attempt to improve their quality of life, these women will look for help and assistance from any organisation that promises to offer them opportunities to remove themselves from poverty situations. With the existence of many NGOs that offer programmes geared towards empowering unemployed women, particularly those with vulnerability, there is always a need to ensure that such programmes deliver as promised. Therefore, it became necessary to explore whether women exhibit evidence of being empowered through skills after participating in a women empowerment programme.