Women winners an inspiration

IT WAS a good weekend for the women of Pretoria with three scooping awards which will allow them to extend the positive work they have begun.

This year’s winners in the Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year awards have shown once again women’s courage in the face of adversity, their concern for others, and how they are willing to use their talents to make a difference.

While we celebrate all five winners’ achievements in the run-up to Women’s Month, we are particularly proud of Marisa van der Merwe of our city who won the award in the educator’s category for her innovative use of chess as a teaching tool to assist children not only in maths, but also to teach children valuable life skills.

Van der Merwe, who has national colours for chess and teaches at a top city school, launched the Moves for Life outreach programme in Mamelodi in 2010. Today around 20 000 children benefit from “mini chess” lessons and Van der Merwe dreams of seeing the programme implemented in the foundation phase as part of the national school curriculum.

In its search for bright young women in science, the L’Oreal-Unesco partnership identifies and supports women doing PhD research. In another event at the weekend, women, including two from the city, were selected as winners and will benefit from fellowship funding. They are microbiologist Gerda Fourie and computer scientist Olusawola Fasan, both of Pretoria University.

Fasan (who is just 27) expressed her desire to be an agent of change. She believes women can make a significant difference in their communities. “If we keep on folding our arms and hope someone else will do this, it will not be done,” she said.

This was the sentiment of winners at the Shoprite awards, all of whom have already done something to make a difference and carry the hope that their awards will not only take their projects forward but serve as an inspiration to girls and women in SA.

We salute the winners and trust that they will be just such an inspiration, not only to women but to us all.