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ISAW Foundation
aims to:
- Enable
meaningful and effective participation of black people within the
South African economy by developing their skills
- Increase
employment and income distribution through fair wage compensation
- Provide
professional development through trade curriculum and training
- Diversify
the racial composition, ownership, and management structure of the
wine industry
- Build
lasting relationships to establish partnerships/cooperatives for
collective enterprises
- Invest in
Black-owner businesses and entrepreneurs
- Support
producers with socially responsible business practices.
With these
objectives accomplished, ISAW’s mission of social transformation will
transcend the wine industry into the South African economy as a whole.
While viticulture may be the catalyst, we view the broader scope of the
project as one ingrained in human rights and social equality.
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 Meet
Stephen Satterfield. Stephen is a sommelier, who had a passion for
wine, and a heart for helping South Africans. An Atlanta, Georgia
native, he saw parallels with the Civil Rights movement and South
Africa’s socio-economic situation.
South Africa has many wonderful wineries, but almost all of them are
owned by corporations, not the South Africans themselves. Only two
wineries in South Africa are currently owned by black South Africans.
The corporation’s Wineries have been known to pay as little as $1 a day
to black workers to pick grapes and work in their vineyards. The wide
gap between worker and owner’s wages can be depressing to see. There
has to be a better way. |
