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MOSSEL BAY - The annual Clover Mama Afrika Smarties Week is taking place in Mossel Bay this week.
It is held in a different city or town each year. "Smarties" has nothing to do with the multi-coloured, spherical sweets.
It has to do with the smart skills the women learn during the week, spokespeople told the Mossel Bay Advertiser.
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The Advertiser found the 20 or so women taking part in the initiative busy with mosaic at the Diaz Hotel this week.
Energetic Afro-pop music was playing and the women, sitting in a semi-circle, were cutting glass tesserae or sticking them to a hardboard teapot template they each had.
There was a productive, industrious atmosphere.
On Tuesday, 30 January, the women were baking, on Wednesday doing art and flower arranging and mosaic again and then on Thursday, 1 February, hair and beauty activities.
This social responsibility programme of dairy and foods company, Clover, teaches a group of women who come from different parts of South Africa skills they can take back to their communities to teach others.
The women "grow with" the programme over the years. Unfortunately there was no Mossel Bay attendee at the workshop.
Facilitator Joelle Berry told the Advertiser: "We had a Mossel Bay lady, but she is in her 80s now and she moved to Cape Town."
Mary Lwate of Pretoria said: "I have been with the programme for many years - since 2008.
I attend every January. We make things and we show others back home to do the same. Homeless people are taught skills."
She said she enjoyed the activities thoroughly and she was full of smiles.
A prizegiving took place on Thursday night, when the women's creations were exhibited.
Clover stated in a media release: "To date, these remarkable women have cared for more 14 000 children and 2 500 elderly people, many of whom are abused, orphaned, homeless and vulnerable.
"All this was made possible through workshops and training sessions such as Smarties Week which the Clover Mama Afrika project provides."
ARTICLE & PHOTOS: LINDA SPARG, MOSSEL BAY ADVERTISER JOURNALIST
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