Founded by individuals who know South Africa can transform.
Food Security
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis report of March 2021, South Africa has 11.8 million critically hungry people.
We estimate these statistics to be worse as according to data from Stats SA (January 2023), food inflation has hit a 14-year high at 13.4%.
Food rights are recognized in two sections of the South African Constitution.
The first is s 27(1)(b), which states that everyone has the right of access to sufficient food.
The second is s 28(1)(c), which states that every child has the right to basic nutrition.
Clearly our people need assistance to nourish their families. With the MaTiga plan each and every initiative, whether it be a sports clinic, art centre or self-defence training club, is required to harvest rain-water and maintain a food garden - the permaculture way.
Permaculture is the conscious design and use of land, resources, environment and people which encourages a closed-loop system as witnessed in nature. Permaculture ethics are : Earth Care, People Care, Future Care and Fair Share.
Who we are
Mafusi Molefi
Ambassador I have a BA (Hons) in Development Studies and am passionate about development ideas and transformative learning to answer socio-economic problems. I am an educator and a life-activist in the small-holder food growing sector. As an independent permaculture practitioner, I have spearheaded school food gardens in my own, and adjacent areas. HIV/AIDS, food insecurity and gender based violence are huge challenges in my area. In my life, I continue to remind elders and teach communities how to grow their own health-promoting foods. I also promote dialogue and other circles of support as a means of healing people. After being a serial volunteer at Waaipoort Farm for many years, I am now a permanent member! Artwork by Nandipha Jantjies.
Lili Passetti
Ambassador / Director Growing up as a bi-racial woman in the newly democratic South Africa, I developed a keen interest in Human Rights which I pursued in studying an LLB until I lost the battle to substance abuse and succumbed to my addiction for some years. I have since entered into recovery with a vast array of experience, which has made me empathetic to the plight of addiction, violence against women and the lack of implementation around access to justice. I refuse to live in the problem and stand by the solution-based approach Ma Tiga is taking to empower women and the people of South Africa to heal, as I am living proof that there is a better way to live but we simply cannot do it alone.
Tremaine Seekoei
Ambassador I am Tremaine Seekoei also known as Kaalvoet Prinses and I am an ambassador for Ma Tiga Fund. I am a sexual violence activist and founder of The Barefoot Campaign in support of survivors of sexual violence. I work for a women's empowerment organization called Women To Women and I am a singer and lyricist. Having been a full-time sexual violence activist and also working in the NPO sector, I am well aware of the challenges that come with finding funding for the much-needed work that we do in our communities. I love Ma Tiga because it seeks to make funding more accessible for women. Also, the fact that it makes it possible for everyone to be a donor. I trust and believe that if we all come together and contribute towards the Ma Tiga Fund, we can drive big change with small change.
Bria Chloe Manning
Director / Marketing I am Bria Chloe Manning. I formally worked in the restaurant industry as a chef & FOH Manager. After years of being in the industry I realized I was missing something in my life; besides sleep. From there I ventured into accounts and business operations for various companies, yet this didn't satisfy my soul. I've known Michèle for 17yrs and through her I found one of my passions in life. Which is making a difference in the world we live in, breaking away from generational trauma and poverty. Giving everyone an opportunity to become something. With Ma Tiga Fund this is all possible. Together we can make positive long-term changes to our communities.
Pulane Shomang
Director
Michèle Schiess
Director / Founder As a grandmother, my greatest desire is that, in the future, our children have a safe and abundant World to live in. Having operated in the Non-Profit sector for over 20 years, I know the pitfalls and have developed the MaTiga plan to overcome beneficary dependancy, giving communities the tools to heal and recover dignity. My early career was in the motion picture industry which I finally left in 2009, after concurrently co-founding an NPO in 2000, to which I again, (still) serve as director today. For 8 years, we’ve managed Waaipoort Farm, Free State. The farm is a working permaculture farm, practising regenerative agriculture. Permaculture ethics are: Earth Care, People Care, Future Care, Fair Share, and I live by this. I have a daughter born on 9th August and every year the statistics and headlines get worse. For the Women of SA, it the the day we stood in our power in 1956. Personally, it was a great joy to give birth to a child. It is true that Woman has birthed every person on the planet and it is time for Her to to respected! I believe that the principles of radical care, nuturing, empathy, creativity and wisdom can become normal in society. Collective well-being is joy, emancipation and healthy communities. Let’s do this!
Douglas & Velcich
Chartered Accountants
Auditors In 1984, Alan Velcich and I established Douglas & Velcich to provide auditing and financial services to progressive organisations working to develop people and communities in opposition to Apartheid. Since Alan’s untimely death in 2013, we have been managed by a four person management committee, who continue to serve human rights, education and health in the NGO sector. 2024 will mark 40 years in which we have been privileged, through the work of our clients, to contribute towards an economically, socially and environmentally just South Africa. We feel proud to be asked to be the auditors of the Ma Tiga Fund in South Africa as it strives towards returning South Africa to its blueprint of well-being. -David Douglas
Sid Organe
Director / Finance As an autodidact and polymath I spent about 26 years in the I.T., Business, Systems Development and Accounting industry (Self-employed) during which time I applied years researching and learning about the human condition and why society to me appeared so unbalanced. This resulted in me leaving Gauteng in the beginning of 2010 where I furthered my interests in Sustainable Development, Non-profit work, Equity Ownership Enterprise Development and various other fields of interest. Resultant to the aforementioned I researched, adopted, developed and put positive solutions into practice within my own working environment and focusing rather on that, which over time I believe and hope can make a beneficial difference to the lives of others. In addition it is my firm belief that to improve the injustice and corruption within society we have to as individuals be responsible and held accountable for our actions, not by fighting society but rather being fully transparent in all that we do as this I believe is a deterrent to unethical practice.
Why was MaTiga created.
South Africans are yearning for social and environmental justice.
When 10% of South African citizens are contributing small amounts monthly to a Fund for well-being, great strides will be taken in dealing with our challenges, spending the money in forgotten communities.
We have over 500 townships, and over 2000 informal settlements in SA, often fraught with substance abuse, violence and crime. The wounded psychology of our people needs care and healing.
As a survivor of several violent crimes, I wanted to do something about the conditions which created these experiences.
Only radical care, compassion and love can lead our people back to their blueprint of well-being, one intervention at a time.
Michėle Schiess - Founder
(Member of Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising since 2002)
Our values
ACTIVE STEWARDSHIP
It is all of our responsibility to create change and to take care of our world.
COLLECTIVE WELL-BEING
Supporting bodies, relationships, communities and the land to be well.
TRAUMA HEALING
Overcoming trauma. Supporting the processing and healing of historical, interpersonal, and environmental trauma in order to revert to our unique and shared blueprints for health and wholeness.
Mission
For decades in our local lingo, ten Rand denominations have been called "tigers."
Our mission is to utilise the power of numbers and the tiger (tiga) in order to become the financial and support partner for change-makers, visionaries and care-givers who seek to heal our people and ecology.
MaTiga's objective is for social and climate justice, for the people, by the people.
& Vision
Led by women for ordinary people of Southern Africa, to bring about radical healing and systemic change in the region, for a
regenerative, safe, secure and abundant future for all.