The Elevation Alliance (TEA) intends to elevate young women in and around Mpumalanga. This non-profit organisation was recently established with a prelaunch event held at the Jenna Clifford Design Studio. It aims to offer an online mentorship and leadership development programme for young women.

The idea to start this programme was Brenda Mabaso’s, who co-founded it with two dynamic women, Tshepiso Phosa and Dr Chantelle Swanepoel.

These are directors of TEA and MobiGo Solutions, the company that will provide the online mentorship and leadership development programme.

According to Mabaso, one of the key concerns around gender discrimination and injustices against women has been the lack of leadership development and opportunities. “The climb to break the glass ceiling and lack of gender diversity are the worst challenges for young women. We felt that through structured mentorship and leadership development, it would be good to support young women to get into leadership positions.

“As much as some of the barriers to leadership can be attributed to lack of resilience and power to deal with obstacles on the ladder to leadership and success, most of these are societal. This organisation wants to change the attitude towards how young women are treated when it comes to leadership opportunities. It is going to build the confidence of young women and they are going to fuel the world by building a pipeline of young women leaders.”

Swanepoel said as they developed the concept of the organisation, it was important to consider that the mentorship offered needed to target young women in the work environment. “Ensuring that even those that are unemployed are not left out, the programme has targeted mentors who will provide support to a selection of mentees yet to be recruited.”

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Swanepoel said the idea is to ensure that mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationships and develop greater confidence.

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