Sustainable development and black economic empowerment (BEE)

Legislation passed in South Africa in 2003 encourages firms to adopt BEE strategies to promote diversity in the management and ownership of businesses. Monkeybiz has excelled by achieving the second-highest BEE accreditation rating in South Africa. Small wonder the project continues to receive enormous support from overseas, especially the United States.

Monkeybiz has achieved tremendous impact by providing a basic income to many families who would otherwise have been left destitute. Many women who attest to the principle of upliftment. As a measure of its commitment, Monkeybiz annually reinvests all its profit in the beading community. Monkeybiz has won the respect and recognition of the local and international art community and serves as a benchmark for non-profit organizations in South Africa.

Mathapelo: "helping the beaders gain business skills remains a big challenge.”

Women's empowerment

Monkeybiz empowers women with a threepronged approach that intersects at the grassroots level. “It functions at an economic level, through health and related services, and through art, which is very unique. Monkeybiz gets to the heart of women’s empowerment because it’s ‘on the ground’. The big challenge is to give people the power to have control over their own lives. Putting money into people’s hands actually works: you have to enable people to buy bread and feed their children first. Skills training and education come later.”

The Monkeybiz empowerment approach is remarkable because it encourages the women to have dignity and pride in their work. It’s based on the philosophy of making artists self-sufficient, to understand business and to take responsibility. The women work in their own homes, where they can take care of household duties. “They’re not doing a mindless job on some obscure factory line,” adds Kristy. “They’re creating their own thing, expressing their individuality. It’s extraordinary because it really values women’s work, which often goes unpaid and unnoticed.”

Monkeybiz’s women’s empowerment approach is endorsed by the presence of Dr Mamphela Ramphele as its patron. A key role-player in the Black Consciousness Movement during the struggle against apartheid, she is the first woman and the first black South African to have held the position of vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town.

Formerly one of four managing directors of the World Bank, Dr Ramphele is the executive chairperson of Circle Capital Ventures and a leading business executive.

hiv/aids

A large percentage of Monkeybiz artists are either HIV-positive or care for people who are dying of Aids or for Aids orphans. The immense impact of the pandemic on the beading community has spurred Monkeybiz to action.

Monkeybiz also provides women with money for taxi fare to and from the clinic on a weekly basis, as well as a bag of nutritious porridge to take home. Subject to additional financial support, Monkeybiz is trying to expand the clinic so it may serve a growing number of women who are HIV-positive.

HIV/Aids was also addressed in 2003 through a beadwork-illustrated book in English and Xhosa called Positively HIV. Funded by Norad and produced in association with Isandi, a Norwegian arts and crafts distribution company, Monkeybiz published a book filled with striking beadwork, graphics and text aimed at educating South African youth.

Positively HIV was named as one of the Top 18 Books for the New Democracy by Exclusive Books, a national bookselling chain. The collector’s edition includes a five-track music CD, entitled Statements, which features the vernacular narratives of Monkeybiz bead artists mixed into electronic dance tracks by the Norwegian SaS group.

Aids orphans

Monkeybiz will soon have to confront the reality of caring for Aids orphans. Mathapelo: “Somehow, we’re going to have to find ways of taking care of the kids once their parents pass away.

Mankosi Modise cares for the children of her brother and sister, both of whom had died of Aids.