Mothers for All

Our beads are hand-crafted out of all forms of paper waste including discarded magazines, cardboard packaging, calendars and flyers. Paper waste constitutes the greatest part of our society's solid waste at 40%. Organic waste contributes around 20%, metal 6%, glass 3% and the rest comes from other waste products including plastics.

In a rather bizarre but heart-warming development, male prisoners at Brandvlei Maximum near Worcester have joined the Mothers for All movement. Twenty prisoners have received training and are now spending much of their free time making paper beads in order to help the orphans and vulnerable children in their community.

The mothers are not only learning new handicraft skills they are also learning how to pass these skills on to new trainee mothers. Our experienced Selebi-Phikwe mothers now regularly travel to other villages and towns to teach the beading skills. And how they all love these outings!

With Mothers for All's first Botswana groups now producing consistently excellent products, and new groups starting elsewhere in the country, the organisation has expanded to South Africa. At 5.5 million South Africa has more HIV-positive people than any other country in the world and the highest number of AIDS orphans, estimated at 1.4 million.

The many remarkable women who reach out to care for the orphans in their communities, in spite of having so little themselves, provide the inspiration for Mothers for All and thus embody the spirit of the organisation. Here are a few of their stories.

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Welcome to the website of Mothers for All, a non-profit organisation that supports the women in Botswana and South Africa who are caring for children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. The trust's primary focus is teaching income-generating skills to the orphans' caregivers - mainly women, often with little means, often caring for more than one child - thereby providing a sustainable means of support for them and their charges.

Mothers for All also aims to provide a social network through which the orphan caregivers can share their experiences, challenges and knowledge. Ultimately, the women will be taught permaculture and food gardening, and will be given environmental awareness training. Browse this site to learn more about our projects, to view the beautiful paper beaded jewellery which will soon to be available for purchase from the website, and to read more about the extraordinary mothers.

Mothers for All salutes the men challenging stereotypes

Sunday, 12 April 2009 09:55

One Man Can
By Kristen Palitza

Sonwabo Qathula puts on his apron and starts peeling a pile of butternuts, while a pot of rice boils on the stove next to him. The 50-year-old is preparing lunch for poor and orphaned children who attend rural school in the Eastern Cape. When the meal is ready, he dishes out the food and serves it to the boys and girls. Later, he collects the empty plates and washes the dishes.

Isaac - motivating Mothers for All

Friday, 03 April 2009 09:06
Meet Isaac – a human face and story for a tragedy of epic proportions unravelling in sub-Saharan Africa where nearly 12 million of the world’s estimated 15 million AIDS orphans live. His situation must surely be every parent’s nightmare – a once beloved child now totally abandoned, with nowhere to sleep, no shared meals at a table, no one to turn to, no hugs, no praise, no laughter, no love.
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Foundation group update

Saturday, 12 July 2008 15:39
All of the Selebi-Phikwe mothers are now earning a regular income from the sale of their exquisite paper bead jewellery. The beads have become bigger and bolder and the jewellery pieces more creative. In fact, we cannot keep pace with the local demand, but hope to soon offer the products for sale on the website with the creation of more groups around Botswana and South Africa.
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Barclays funds Mothers for All

Saturday, 21 February 2009 13:35
In late 2008 someone working at Barclays Bank Botswana saw the Mothers for All products on sale at Botswanacraft, a large shop in Gaborone which showcases Botswana's best indigenous crafts. This person was so impressed by both the products and the project that she tracked us down and suggested we apply for funding from Barclays UK.
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