Shared Interest News

If we do not deal with the issues of youth development in the rural areas, we will not meet the challenge of improving the quality of life of our people. Essop Pahad, the Minister in the Presidency, June 3, 2007

2006 has been a year of breakthroughs for Shared Interest and its partners in South Africa. During those 12 months, as you will see in our annual report, we have more than doubled the number of people we have served during our first 12 years. As of December 31, 2006, Shared Interest’s work had benefited more than 975,000 low-income black South Africans.

And yet, South Africa continues to confront a bitter reality. Thirteen years after the birth of its democracy, unemployment rates as high as 85% still grip South Africa’s rural areas, where 46 percent of its population resides. Most rural families are black. The majority live in deep poverty. Youngsters growing up in these communities see few opportunities for work (other than seasonal employment on white-owned farms), and know they will most likely need to seek jobs in urban areas.

On June 16, Youth Day, South Africans celebrate the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto massacre. As the country mourns the unarmed children gunned down during a peaceful anti-apartheid protest, it recommits itself to the future of its next generation.

Shared Interest and its guarantee partners in rural communities are forging new futures for their youth by creating jobs, wealth - and hope. Recognizing that many initiatives to transform these impoverished areas have fallen short, Shared Interest and our partner, Thembani, are supplying not only access to finance, but also the technical assistance and market linkages that community businesses and cooperatives require to succeed

The products of Shared Interest’s innovative rural partnerships range from chickens to trout, and sugarcane to mushrooms. We often work with agricultural businesses that are expanding rapidly, like Tropical Mushrooms, and adding value to their produce, such as the Diretsogetse Pankop fruit and vegetable farm and dehydration plant. It is fitting that Diretsogetse was named by its community’s young people. It means, “opportunities have come to us.”

We invite you to make a tax-deductible contribution to “Shared Interest” now to create new possibilities for youth in other communities. As always, we appreciate your support for today’s - and tomorrow’s South Africans.

Donna Katzin

Executive Director

Neo Mogapi, Manager of Tropical Mushrooms featured on 2006 Annual Report.