Established in 2000 to create and market contemporary South African wire and bead craft art, Streetwires provides skills training, support, and raw materials to over 100 formerly unemployed men and women in Cape Town and rural Clanwilliam. As market access increases, Streetwires plans to expand its presence in communities across South Africa through a number of centers operated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). At these centers, Streetwires not only provides training, employment, and wages, but also develops community leaders to take over management of the centers and demonstrates to the broader community that it is possible to start a successful business despite challenging circumstances.

Unemployment in South Africa

Although South Africa has seen significant economic, social, and political progress since the end of apartheid - the system of political and economic discrimination in place from 1948 to 1994 - unemployment and poverty are rates are still high, particularly for the black population, over 50 percent of which lives below the poverty line. Streetwires aims to create sustainable employment opportunities for as many of South Africa's unemployed as possible. The organization is in the process of establishing a complimentary nonprofit organization, Streetwires Training and Development, to promote community development through skills training, artist development, and outreach to orphanages, schools, and impoverished communities.

Zulu Wire Art

Wire art involves crafting art out of wire, beads, tin cans, and other found recycled items. While the origin of this traditional craft is not known, most likely, it developed in Maputoland and Zululand in rural Northern Kwazulu-Natal, in the northeast corner of South Africa. Lacking the resources to buy manufactured toys, young boys in these regions fashioned their own out of discarded hangers, tin cans, and whatever else they could find. In villages and townships today, one can see boys playing with model cars they made entirely from discarded materials. Recognizing children's ingenuity, older community members began making their own wire arts to sell to tourists-everything from jewelry to working radios. Today, ‘wiremasters' sell their creations not only on street corners and at craft markets, but also in upmarket shops and galleries around the world. Streetwires' wire art lends itself readily to being branded, thereby increasing the appeal of these products for promotional purposes and corporate gifts, an area that Streetwires has pioneered.

Region: Southern Africa
Capital: Pretoria
Population: 43,997,828 (2007)
Size: Bigger than Texas and California combined
Independence: Union of South Africa formed from 4 British colonies in 1910; republic of South Africa declared in 1961; majority rule and democracy in 1994
Currency: South African rand
Languages: 11 official languages: Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda

Literacy Rate: 82.4% (2004)
Education: Today, 20% of government expenditure goes to funding education. This is large compared to many countries but only begins to address the many years of unequal access to education under apartheid.
Primary School Enrollment Rate: 89% (2004)
Life Expectancy: Male, 43.2 years; Female 41.6 years (2007)
Infant Mortality Rate: 59.4 deaths/1,000 births (2007)
HIV Prevalence Rate: 18.8% (2005)
National Poverty Rate: 50% (2000)
Population living on less than $2 a day: 34.1% (1990-2004)
Population living on less than $1 a day: 10.7% (1990-2004)
Access to clean drinking water: 88% (2004)
Access to proper sanitation: 65% (2004)
Doctor to patient ratio: 77 doctors for every 100,000 people (1990-2004)

All statistics from CIA World Factbook 2007 & UNDP Human Development Report 2006

South Africa has Africa's strongest economy, producing nine percent of the continent's economic activity. However, South Africa also has the second highest number of AIDS patients in the world and is still recovering from years of apartheid that has left behind a legacy of extreme inequality among South Africans.

Apartheid's Legacy
Apartheid refers to the policies instituted by the white minority government from 1948 to 1992. The word "apartheid" means "separateness," achieved through the creation of a legal system that discriminated against all non-whites, forcing them to live in designated areas, prohibiting them from voting, and denying them equal access to services such as health, education, and jobs. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to relocate to areas of the country determined by ethnic group.

Dedicated activists waged peaceful protests against the government and its racist laws for a number of years. But as their protest was increasingly met with violence and police brutality, the resistance gained momentum and ultimately shifted its strategy to one that relied on the use of force. In the 1980s internal violence intensified. This was coupled with growing international condemnation from anti-apartheid activists (particularly student activists in the US) that led to the imposition of economic sanctions. The president at that time, Frederik Willem de Klerk, began to dismantle apartheid and transition to democratic rule with open elections through a series of negotiations. South Africa's first free elections took place in 1994 and Nelson Mandela, a central leader in the fight against apartheid, was elected as South Africa's first black president.

The consequences of apartheid can be seen today in the country's vast racial inequalities. Blacks, who make up over three quarters of the population, suffer from low levels of education, employment, and income. Sixty percent of blacks (but only three percent of whites) live below the poverty line, aggravating one of South Africa's biggest challenge: incredibly high crime rates.

HIV and AIDS
With 5.5 million people infected with HIV, South Africa has the second highest number of HIV/AIDS patients in the world and the highest number in all of Africa. South Africans spend more time attending funerals than getting hair cuts, going to barbecues, or shopping. Much of this tragedy can be attributed to the South African government's neglect of the issue as the president and other members of government continue to dispute the effectiveness and value of providing antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for treatment. Though the government created a public health plan to administer ARVs in 2003, it has been very slow to implement it.

Looking Forward
Despite the challenges, South Africa is also upheld for its diversity, sometimes referred to as a "rainbow nation." The country's history is also one rooted in social justice; two universally significant philosophies were born in South Africa. Mahatma Ghandi lived and organized in South Africa for over two decades, during which time he developed the theory of satyagraha, (nonviolence). South African activists used satyagraha in the initial stages of the fight against apartheid. The Zulu concept of Ubuntu describes the common bond between all of humanity and comes from the phrase umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, "people are people through other people" - -the idea that an individual's fortunes and misfortunes are intimately connected to everyone's fortunes and misfortunes. Today, this concept is called upon by many as people across South Africa work to move the country forward.