Empowering young girls

A Girls Empowerment Fun Day was held this past Saturday at the Basketball Artists School (BAS), which is located within the Katutura Youth Complex grounds.
ELIZABETH JOSEPH
Michelline Nawatises

The ‘Empowering Young Girls into Responsible Young Ladies’ programme is run solely by young mentors who set up the events and conduct them. It was conceptualised earlier this year and was officially kicked off by Saturday’s event.

The Namibian Basketball Federation (NBF) and the BAS work together as the support system for the programme. The mentors are already looking into planning another event, which will be bigger and better.

The mentors for the day were young women aged mainly between 18 to 20 years old, who have grown up in the same communities as the participants. The participants were gathered together to teach them life skills and unity. All the games played were tied to a life skills lesson to make it better understandable for the young girls.

“Rather invest in yourself than in things that cannot build your character; stop making other people rich at the expense of your own time” said Silba Ndjiharine, a motivational speaker, lecturer and Centaurus High School teacher.

Organisations and sponsors apart from the NBF and the BAS also came on board to assist with funding that allowed for every participant and volunteer to receive a T-shirt and a girls’ essential-care hamper was given to every girl to take home.

These included the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and the ONE TEAM organisation.

The Namibia Football Association (NFA) brought the girls from their programme to attend.

St Barnabas Primary School, Immanuel Shifidi Secondary School, Peoples Primary School and Mandume Primary School were among the participating schools.

There were over 50 participants.

Many of the girls spoke of self-confidence, self-belief and self-esteem as the major areas covered. The programme aims to teach them a sense of ‘self’.

The elements of environment and decision-making are what the mentors emphasised.

This is to remind the girls that one’s environment should not define them or their future and that although the exposure to negativity is great in our communities, it’s the decisions they make that will ensure they don’t become victims, but rather success stories.

Photo 1: Participants waiting for the essential hampers.

Photo 2: Participants playing tug-of-war.

PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED