Young women, between the ages of 19 and 24, are set to benefit from various empowerment programmes organised by Etafeni Day Care Centre Trust in partnership with the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation and Proud to Be Me.
The programmes rage from work readiness to numeracy and business skills and are aimed at providing opportunities for personal development for unemployed women.
Project co-ordinator, Sive Siboto, appealed to young women to be part of the programmes which targeted girls, mostly from the poverty stricken areas in the Klipfontein sub-districts, Mitchell’s Plain, Hanover Park, Crossroads, Gugulethu and Nyanga with the aim of building strong, independent women.
“We plan to stream them into different areas according to their skills,” she said, adding that they also wanted to build the young women’s self esteem and sense of belonging in the community.
Proud to Be Me will be focusing on empowering them with sexual and reproductive health education.
Ms Siboto said they wanted to help about 1 000 women, most of whom were business minded, but lacked business basics. “We are faced with many challenges because people cannot write properly because of WhatsApp and other social media.
“We now have to focus on such small issues. We are mentoring many of them. But we also have the work readiness programme to work on their skills,” she said.
Nyanga resident, Sindiswa Levu, commended the centre for its work in the community. “We are blessed to have them among us. They have been good to us and our children,” she said. “They are involved in many developmental programmes, including the soup kitchen, that help those who are poor.”
* To take part in their programmes, phone 021 386 1516 .