My Palm Foundation to empower young girls

Wits University student Enhakkore Bope and founder of My Palm Foundation is passionate about the empowerment of young women.

“I saw a need to create an environment that recognises women’s needs and to empower them. I think it’s important that women be provided with equal opportunity as it happens to our male counterparts, without limitation.

“It’s important to realise how much women contribute to their communities, and how much more they could do if they were provided with the right resources and equal opportunity,” said Bope.

She said, given these considerations, she was inspired to to establishment an organisation to give young women a platform to talk about their challenges.

“My Palm Foundation was established to change the traditional expectations of women, evoke the thriving and unrestrained nature in them through education and collaboration,” she said.

Also read: Threatened Knysna chameleon is one of the few species that gives live birth

The foundation is currently collaborating with Strathyre Girls’ Home.

“The Strathyre Girls’ Home is our official 2019/20 annual outreach. Hopefully, we could get involved in the girls’ lives beyond this year. “My Palm Foundation aims to cater to the girls’ needs. It can be through advice and guidance as a big sister, converse and have fun as a friend, and play sports together as a teammate,” said Bope.

She chose to work with the home because of the work they do, and because of their age.

“Our mission is to empower women at the most fundamental stages of their lives, which is in their youth. I know this because I too am young, and if I didn’t gain the modes of empowerment I did during my high school stages, even now I would not have been a totally different person. In searching for a girl’s institution, I was told about Strathyre Girls’ by one of my Wits Sport Council members.

“I was so excited to get involved because I realised that many of these girls are close to my age, more or less in the same stage of our lives where we aspire to achieve something,” said Bope.

She said getting involved with the home means she is more than just a donor, but a friend and sister.

Also read: Give that man a Bell’s!

“The girls and management have received us with love. I’m not seen as a donor or an institution but rather as a friend and sister. We are here to offer support, inspire each other and offer our help in guiding the girls to reaching their full potential. The best way of knowing a person is to be part of the environment they live in,” said Bope.

The foundation will be hosting a Girls’ Talk on April 6.

“This event will be our first event with the girls where they will be discussing issues that affect them. We will be discussing the importance of education and how to excel; the struggles of menstruation and how to overcome it by being involved in sport and other recreational activities; the importance of support and understanding that they can all shine together in their respective domains instead of competing for a non-existent crown that society sometimes impose on women,” said Bope.

“The foundation wants to stress the importance of action-after-talk, as it is always good to speak but we would like the girls to follow through with the advice and counsel we give.

“We will unlock their potential through different activities like sports, poetry, cooking classes and other activities that will allow them to be comfortable and explore who they real are and what they are good at,” said Bope.

The foundation is currently running an Instagram challenge called #mypalmchallenge.

Also read: Angels give Christmas party a lift

The challenge is about getting people to identify an issue within their community, sum it up into one word, write it on your palm and post it with the hashtag #mypalmchallenge, and finding communal ways to solving them. We don’t need to be superheroes to make a large difference, but rather small contributions from a large number of participants. So I would like to encourage people to participate and nominate family and friends to follow through,” said Bope.

If you are interested in getting involved you can follow MPF on twitter @FoundationPalm and Instagram @mypalmfoundation.