11 Nov 2015

Answering the Ministry of Education and Skills Development’s call for individuals and companies to partake in the education system, a group of Jwaneng mine professional women named Diva’s Emporium have adopted Morama Junior Secondary School girls with the aim of empowering them with life skills.

The group started as a money lending team, but decided to think of how they could give back to the community and make a more meaningful impact on their society.

The group has already gathered the girls for a boot camp that aimed at transferring skills on fitness and nutrition. 

The club secretary, Ms Diane Moseki said they organised games and a motivation talk by one of the divas to make it more fun to the girls. She said their mission was to protect the girls against social ills such as HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy and drugs.

“We are aware of the many social ills that mining towns face and Jwaneng is not immune. We therefore went back to the drawing board, shifted focus and came up with what we viewed as a more sustainable approach of imparting skills which has a track value than the usual donations,” she said.

Ms Moseki added that by empowering the girl child they believed she could see beyond depending on a man for maintainance and see a bright future ahead of her. 

She said most girls were enticed by older men with material things and that contributed immensely to school drop outs due to pregnancy and poor examination results. 

She said the girl child has the potential to refuse temptation when empowered and has clearly defined goals.

 “Our goal is to see the girl child making informed decisions and assuming high careers of sustainable benefit”, she added.

One of the group members, Ms Pearl Nyanyiwa said the group was led by the spirit of volunteerism to provide free mentoring, coaching and life lessons.

She said guidance was important especially to teenagers who were still building their future.

“Life is all about choices and with education and guidance you are sure of a positive future,” she explained.

She urged the girls to choose the right group of friends and share their problems with their teachers for assistance.

 One of the students, Ms Chenesani Sithole who just completed her Form Three, acknowledged what the Diva’s Emporium has done to their lives. 

She said she learnt that a diva does not surrender. “I have learnt to be a strong woman and I am motivated that the feeling of discomfort only come when you have told your mind so,” she said.

Another student, Ms Tumelo Basimanebotlhe shared the same sentiments that she has learnt to be responsible and gained strength and passion in what she believed in.

It was their third event with Morama girls, dating back from career fair and self-image workshop, and they intend to roll it to other schools. Ends