HomeCountry NewsSouth Africa

South African News

Training focused on women entrepreneurs with disabilities

Written by Drikie Snyman | 07 September 2010

Group_photo In celebration of Women’s month Epilepsy SA hosted its first ever WED Programme in Cape Town during August 2010. The Capacity Building Seminar focused on women entrepreneurs with disabilities and was attended by 11 women and two men drawn from both the disability and commercial sectors.

The seminar programme created opportunities for participants to discover the gender elements inherent in entrepreneurship and skill them with new knowledge and techniques to advance the position of women entrepreneurs and especially those with disabilities.

The Programme content includes:

§ Gender and enterprise;

§ Markets and market access;

§ Business Development Services (BDS) for women entrepreneurs;

§ The enabling environment for WED;

§ Building associations and strategic alliances;

§ Gender issues and finance;

§ Assessing impact;

§ Action planning; and

§ 4 supplementary sessions (HIV/AIDS and women entrepreneurs, Women refugees and entrepreneurship, Women’s entrepreneurship and trafficking and Entrepreneurship development for women with disabilities.

We look forward to the roll-out of this programme by the 13 participants during the next six to twelve months.

This seminar also saw the official launch of Epilepsy South Africa’s Training Division. This Division will offer disability sensitization, entrepreneurship and soft skills training to the disability and non-profit sectors in addition to the corporate sector. Training/meeting facilities are also available at very reasonable prices.

For more information on the WED Programme, please contact Marina Clarke on (021) 595-4900 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

WEDGE South Africa rolls out EYB in MOWE!

Written by Carmen Armstrong | 01 July 2010

The Expand Your Business Programme (EYB) is an integrated business training and support package for small to medium sized enterprises that have growth objectives in mind. These small and medium enterprises that have growth potential are called Growth-Oriented Enterprises (GOEs). The EYB programme is ‘integrated’ because it provides a number of interventions that are important to the growth and expansion of businesses. These are training and non-training interventions.

This Training is a “Training of Trainers” of the EYB product

The training will be held from the 23 August -03 September 2010 (10 working days) in Pretoria, South Africa. The ILO WEDGE South Africa project will fund the costs of the workshop, training and training manuals for participants. The participants are responsible for all travel, accommodation, insurance and miscellaneous costs.

Participants who are interested in attending the training must complete the application form provided and send it, (via email) to Lucia Rodrigues at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or fax: 086 535 6479 by the 22nd July 2010 where after a shortlist will be selected by WEDGE.

WIF secures top speakers for MOWEA functions in August 2010

Written by Colleen Larsen | 09 June 2010

WIF will be holding their MOWEA event in August, both in Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg, supported by two top speakers. Others to be confirmed.

Vanessa Hall: Vanessa Hall is the Founder and Director of entente Pty Limited, an award winning Author, Speaker and Adviser to business leaders, and individuals alike.

Iris Francis: Iris is currently the Group Head : Communications and CSI (Community Development) within the McCarthy Group (Bidvest).

See the events listing for more information on this event.....

SA - MOWEA 2009

Written by Carmen Armstrong | 20 April 2010

WEDGE SA MOWE 2009: As part of MOWE in August 2009, the ILO trained 44 Women Entrepreneurs in a new tool called “HOW TO GROW MY BUSINESS” and funded a table at the Business Womens Associations, Business women of the Year event held on the 6thAugust 2009.

Women's Month in SA - August

Written by WEDGE - SA | 20 April 2010