* Partner Post

UK international development charity, Shared Interest Foundation has helped over 500 organisations in the last year alone. With support from Comic Relief and working closely with a fair trade development group in country, Shared Interest Foundation helps communities in Swaziland to improve their income.

Beneficiary organisation, Khutsala Artisans, employs over 100 people, offering training in jewellery making, pottery, and woodwork. All profit made goes to the care and education of orphaned or abandoned babies rescued by Heart for Africa and now living at Project Canaan in Swaziland.

In February 2006, Janine Maxwell and her husband, Ian, founded Heart for Africa, as part of a faith-based humanitarian mission to help the orphans of Swaziland.

Before founding Heart for Africa, the Maxwells founded and operated a large commercial marketing group in North America. Janine was meeting with clients in New York on September 11th 2001, and found herself one of the thousands caught up in the tragic 9/11 event. This experience led her to a life-changing trip to Africa where she encountered the AIDS pandemic, hunger, and disease. In response to what she had seen, Janine closed her marketing agency in 2004 and created Heart for Africa and Project Canaan.

Project Canaan is now a 2,500-acre sustainable farm, forming a permanent home for children orphaned in the wake of the Swaziland AIDS pandemic. Khutsala Artisans Centre has continued to expand, and today is one of the key sources of revenue to support this vital facility, which provides a home for almost 200 children who otherwise would have no one to care for them in a country with a current 70% unemployment rate.

The organisation told us: "It is our desire is to provide hope through beauty, design and excellence, while helping the people of this nation break the cycle of poverty and provide for their families."

Khutsala artisan, Margaret Dladla aged 54 said: "I live at my marital home with my five children and two grandchildren. My husband died in 2014. When he died, I had no one to take care of my children and me. We suffered because there was no food or clothing and our wood and mud house was collapsing when there was rain.

"In 2015 I started work at Project Canaan and I was so excited to get the job because I really needed it. I have built a one-room home with concrete block with my salary. I support my family and I buy food and clothing for my children. I am so happy that I got the job at Project Canaan. I really appreciate it and am so thankful."

Shared Interest Foundation continues to work predominately in Africa with projects in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda as well as Swaziland. As the sister charity of Shared Interest Society, the Foundation has helped thousands of farmers and handcraft makers since its launch in 2004.

Thanks to Comic Relief, Shared Interest Foundation has worked in Swaziland since 2010. Aimed at supporting small to medium sized enterprises, over 4,000 people have benefited from the project to date. Swazi artisan, Raymond Mhishi said: "The project has broken barriers between whites and black, barriers between millionaires and the poor, barriers to markets for entrepreneurs."