Cape Town - Young girls from Khayelitsha now have a platform to express themselves and be equipped with values through the I am My Sister’s Keeper organisation.
The girls will have their second session tomorrow (Saturday) and the theme will be choices and consequences. Their first session was in May and they learnt about ground rules and boundaries.
Noluvuyo Magoloza, 39, the founder, said she and her co-founder Zimkhitha Menziwa, 34, identified a need to equip girls and create a safe space for them to express themselves in an attempt to protect them from being victims of gender-based violence and substance abuse.
“We specifically work with girls between the ages of 10 and 18 years, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, for example those who are mostly raised by single mothers. We pick a topic per session and invite a guest to talk about that particular topic, then we give a platform to each and every one in the house to partake and tell us what this topic means to them.
“From our previous event, we found that the reason why the young girl are so easy to fall into traps is because they don’t have boundaries, there are no principles. We want to emphasise more on having boundaries as a person,” said Magoloza.
She said they try to stimulate the mind of these young women to be immune to peer pressure and focus on achieving their goals. Magoloza said raising self-awareness and confident daughters is likely to reduce the incidents of GBV as girls would be able to identify the red flags on the go.
She urged parents to encourage girls to participate in the programme and told the girls that once you stick to that as a young girl, you will know your identity and worth and it is when you will start establishing boundaries and ground rules in your life.
About 36 girls attended the first session, and Milisa Nxiba, 15, admitted she has made bad choices in life due to peer pressure, but she learnt from the programme.
“I wasn't sure what I am My Sister’s Keeper was about when I saw the poster. I went to see for myself and I liked it. They told us about the ground rules and I heard other girls telling their stories. I realised I was getting lost entertaining wrong friends in my life and exposing myself to a lot of things. But from that day I made a promise to myself that I was going to stop partying and feeling pressurised to be in a relationship.”
Anathi Nohoya, 18, is a boilermaker student at Northlink and she said the first session was an eye-opener for her as it made her realise the importance of having values, prioritising and having a healthy relationships with family and those close to you.
“I am looking forward to our next session,” said Nohoya.