Become unbreakable

MISS South Africa Demi-Leigh NelPeters’ Unbreakable campaign kicks off in September with workshops in Gauteng and in Cape Town, in Mamelodi and Observatory.

Nel-Peters has worked closely on the initiative with Mark Grobbelaar, a 6th Dan karate expert, who gave up his corporate job to create an organisation called Woman INPowered (WIP) to empower women faced with life-threatening situations. She has also collaborated with MasterDrive, an advanced driver training company.

She explains: “The Unbreakable campaign aims to educate, uplift and empower South African women. This they can start to do by taking care of themselves and making wise decisions.”

Nel-Peters was inspired to launch Unbreakable by an attempted hijacking this year: “It was awful, but I knew how to handle the situation in the best possible way, because I had done WIP and MasterDrive workshops for women that focused on everything from hijacking and robberies and how to handle them, to how to get out of toxic and abusive relationships. I believe knowledge is power and the information I learnt certainly helped me. So now, with Mark, we will set up similar workshops.”

Inspiration behind WIP is Alison Botha, who endorses the programme. In 1994, Alison was abducted outside her home by two men who raped, stabbed and disembowelled her. Alison survived and has become a speaker and author.

Says Grobbelaar: “We aim to change the way women view self-defence by seeing the power in being able to take control and so changing the outcome of a situation. It is simple, easy to learn, yet devastatingly effective.”

Eugene Herbert, managing director of MasterDrive, says: “Whenever we hear that our hijack extraction course has been of real use to someone, it’s gratifying. I encourage everyone who learns these skills to share them.”

Workshops are free and but limited to 150 women. Booking is essential, on the Miss South Africa website or social media pages/ https://www.pocketrsvp.com/series_rsvp.