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A workshop targeting unemployed women taught them about what the City could do to help them start and run their own businesses.
SOWETAN women were given a pep talk on sharing information on how they can start their own businesses, at the Bram Fischer Community Hall.
Women have the ability to become successful business people, says Zanele Molete, assistant director in Region C's human development department
As part of celebrating Women's Month and empowering women, the City's human development department held the workshop on Wednesday, 18 August. The Entrepreneurship Day for Women, as it was called, was aimed at sharing information with unemployed women in Region C on starting their own businesses and the opportunities provided by Joburg in an effort to eradicate poverty.
The women also heard about healthy living, services offered by libraries and those offered by the City's Migrant Help Desk.
The workshop consisted mainly of speeches but between the talks the participants entertained themselves by singing songs in praise of women.
"As people, especially as women, we have the ability to create things, so as women we must not just sit and wait for someone to come and do something for us. We should stand up and create opportunities for ourselves," said the assistant director of Region C's human development department, Zanele Molete.
Molete encouraged them to take a leaf out of the book of the women of 1956, who did not wait for anybody to hand things to them on a silver platter, but "went out there and fought for not only their freedom but the freedom of their children and families".
Mashudu Masingo encourages women to use City libraries to empower themselves
Her Office, which mainly consisted of social workers, she said, was able to help with the drafting of business plans for free.
Library
Mashudu Masingo from the Roodepoort Library told of ways people could use a City library to empower themselves and introduce their children to the culture of reading.
"We all know that our [black] culture is more about telling stories than it is about reading stories, but we must move from that culture into that of reading because reading has a way of helping our kids with concentration when they are older," Masingo said.
She told parents to encourage their children to use libraries, where there were homework assistant sessions and story hours in the morning for younger children.
Masingo, who had brought with her a number of books about business, urged the ladies to become members of the library. They would be able to read any book they wanted at their own pace and in the comfort of their own homes.
The pep talk looked into how elderly women can access the City's social package
The speakers on the programme were mostly women but there were a number of men. One, who only identified himself as Shaun from Work Force, talked about the Siyasizana Expanded Social Package provided by the City.
Benefits
The package is a basket of benefits allocated to citizens based on their levels of poverty. They include free 100 Kilowatt-hours of electricity and 10 000 litres of water. Through Siyasizana, the City has an agreement with Work Force to give week-long courses on beauty therapy to unemployed Joburg residents.
"On the first day of the course, we teach you how to do a French manicure. On the second and third day, the trainees get an opportunity to do 10 clients, charging R10 per person," Shaun explained. "On Thursday, they must bring with them R100 they made the previous days and on the last day of the course, which is Friday, we then teach them to put on the artificial French tips."
At the end of the course, the trainees got a certificate and a starter kit, consisting of needed items for the manicure business. The course was free; all that was needed was a minimum group of 20 to 25 people. Shaun said he would then come to a specified venue with his group of instructors. He can be contacted on 076 906 6877.
The workshop was part of Women's Month activities. The month honours the legacy of the women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956 to petition against legislation that required black people to carry passes - special identification documents that curtailed their freedom of movement.
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