About SWADE

OUR MISSION:
To empower rural communities in designated areas to attain an improved quality of life and be able to sustain it

SWADE’s Philosophy
SWADE’s philosophy or “way of doing things” is based on one of the organisation’s key values of ‘a people centred approach’. SWADE believes one cannot have the sustainable development we aim to achieve without empowering the people to do things for themselves.

This philosophy centres on empowering people in communities of SWADE’s project development areas and helping them develop agricultural businesses using water as a catalyst. This is to help them attain an improved standard of living. At the core is investing in people, through a number of interventions, the principal being training.

Approach
SWADE pursues its mandate through a holistic empowerment process that transforms the mindset of people. The process entails training to positively influence their attitudes (A); competency (C) levels and application (A) skills, in irrigated agricultural crop production, livestock, infrastructure development and environmental management. This is coined the ACA Process.

Through this process SWADE is then able to assist communities in the Project Development Area (PDA) to establish farming businesses and other spin-off businesses that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. This process allows project beneficiaries to take full ownership, responsibility and accountability for the project.
SWADE collaborates with other relevant government departments, ministries, NGOs and development partners. The various tools used in implementing SWADE’s process include training modules, live demonstrations, drama, visuals, specimen, pictures, posters, story telling, case studies and skits to a limited extent. .