About Us

Mshudulwane Garden identified by the NMRW in 2017 is located in Daggakraal in Pixley-ka-Seme region with five female Project Members.

Who We Are

The National Movement of Rural Women (NMRW) is a grassroots non – profit organisation that advocates for social justice and constitutional rights of rural women and communities, while also empowering them economically. Initially known as Rural Women’s Movement (RWM) in early years of formation, it was established in 1986 by the late Mme Lydia Komape – Ngwenya in response to the exclusion of women in socio – political activities related to forced removals and forced incorporations to Bantustans.

The exclusion of women in the social, political, and economic activities became a catalysed for the establishment of this movement. In 1999 when it became apparent that the RWM trademark was registered in Pietermaritzburg, the organisation was renamed and registered as the National Movement of Rural Women (NMRW). While this reflects on but a portion of our organisation’s significant history, the depth of every historical perspective that has shaped the movement is yet to be captured. Whereas those details that are documented and archived, are not entirely presented here.

Currently, the NMRW has presence in four provinces of South Africa, namely: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northwest, and Kwa Zulu Natal. In each of the provinces, the organisation works in up to 5 regions which are demarcated into district and local municipalities which NMRW further branches into. The NMRW operates through its Project Support and Social Justice departments. Within the Project Support department, the NMRW identifies self-started, women-led community projects, provides assistance and facilitates capacity building.

This includes equipping project members with skills such as: financial management, product quality improvement and resource management. The goal of Project Support is to empower rural people who have been previously marginalised. Our organisation ensures that although they have tirelessly laboured in various industries such as farms they worked on but never owned, they now cultivate projects they exclusively own.

With the NMRW’s support, they create and grow produce for their provision while scaling their small- businesses to compete in broader markets; enabling them to generate income and achieve financial sustainability. The supported projects include various sectors such as Agriculture (crop, poultry, and animal farming), Manufacturing – Grain based food industry (Confectionary and bakery) Construction

(Brick making), Manufacturing (clothing and textiles) and Manufacturing Arts and Crafts.

The Social Justice department champions the organisations founding objective of advocating for the rights of rural communities. This includes educating people on their rights, laws, policies and raising awareness about the effects of phenomena such as climate change and Covid - 19. The objective of Social Justice is to facilitate understanding of rights and policies that directly impact communities. Currently, the NMRW’s Social Justice research agenda includes Family (Maintenance, and Marriage), Governance (Traditional Leadership and others), Climate Change, Land

and have recently included Education in the department’s research focus.