Self-esteem – the key to empowering young women

Zane Maqetuka ‘MR SOUTH AFRICA RUNNER UP 2012’ and Sharna Martin, student and SRC member at Parow campus.

Maslow’s five scale hierarchy of human needs list number four as the need for self-esteem “a term used in psychology to reflect a person’s overall emotional evaluation of his or her own worth”. From infancy humans start to formulate their surroundings and adapt behaviours and traits that will eventually form part of their character for the good or bad. Many have not yet become aware of who or what they are.

In May 2013 Parow campus was proud to host the Code Teen/Girlology workshop sponsored by Kotex (a brand of feminine hygiene products). The programme is set to help empower young women and girls to become phenomenal women. Presenter Karen Burt describes the Girlology programme as “The Ultimate guide to surviving and thriving being a Girl”. They believe that girls need to be empowed and at the workshop she and her team spoke to a group of young women on how important it is for them to have a voice in society. The programme is three hours long and for more information visit www.codeteen.com.

The women present were given an uncensored honest opinion from the male guests on a panel. They gave commentary to illustrate what goes on in the mind of the typical male. DJ Easy from GoodHope FM and Zane Maqetuka Mr SA runner-up were the male guests at the Parow campus’s first round. But if we want to empower women it is just as important to make the programme available to young men in future as well. In this way it would help mould great men for society.

Attendees were really impressed by the workshop, each received a goodie bag with complimentary sanitary towels and a Kotex voucher.

“This was a reality check for the girls and they had an opportunity to speak openly about their feelings, problems while also relating, learning from and listening to their peer group’s issues. The women received useful tips and information that they will be able to use in the future,” said Olwen Solomons from student support services (SSS).