Talk inspires girls to flaunt their girl power
Fezeka Motsatse is coming through for young girls to boost their confidence by helping them understand their girl power.
Fezeka Motsatse from Sunninghill Gardens drew inspiration from her daughter, Neo, to spearhead a powerful movement that speaks directly to the girl child as they kickstarted Youth Month.
Dressed in a dazzling array of colorful pink outfits, the ladies came together to launch the dynamic Girl Power initiative, aimed to celebrate young girls and help them understand their power, strength, and resilience on June 1.
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Matsatse is the co-founder of Girl Power South Africa and the director of Girls Empowerment Global Network, an organisation that is the brains behind Girl Power South Africa.
She said her daughter was 16 years old at the time when she started getting ideas of what she can do to help the other young girls to understand their girl power. She explains how it all began.
“Neo is a violinist and started playing the instrument when she was only six years old. Her life was about lessons, practice, rehearsals, and performance. She was never a kid like others who would go for play dates, kids parties, and sleepovers. She was always about music and working hard. After her first international tour, she came back and asked me ‘Who am I?’
“She struggled to define who she was, and in the mid of that, trying to explain how different she was from other people. Girl Power became the words that I used to explain to her who she was. That’s when we founded Girl Power South Africa.
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“Her older sister, Mosa, and her younger sister, Teboho, joined our conversation and together, we decided to start a girl power programme. Initially, it was built around the girls and Neo’s friends, talking about their daily struggles. As their mentor around that time, I realised that these struggles were real, and needed interventions. We started introducing one event at a time, our first event was called MOMents, a mother/daughter- moment to understand each other’s world.”
She said they they started their first school programme called Teach A Girl at Ingqayizivele High School in Tembisa in 2017. This was a five-year leadership and empowerment programme for girls that ran until 2021.
Matsatse said this year they are switching things up a little bit by making every day to celebrate the strength of the young girls throughout June. This is an important movement for Matsatse because of the current times that these young girls find themselves living in.
“We live of social media and celebrity role models – girls need to understand who they are, and to know when and how they are moulding their identities and building their authentic profiles. They need to become better leaders of their own lives, and stand together in fighting the challenges they face, building sisterhood to support one another, end girl hate, and fight for girls’ rights.
“Our aim is to inspire the girls to find their power within and reach their highest potential. Our leadership programme is embedded in the following values: grounded, grow, glow, and flow. So the girls take away a sense of who you are and belonging,
self-awareness and celebrating the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Learning about the girlhood life beyond the classroom.”
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