Turning ordinary women into leaders
. . . teaching and guiding runs deep in Preetha Nanhoo’s family
AS A teacher Preetha Nanhoo moulded young lives and as a guidance counsellor she experienced first hand the challenges of the youth.
Now, as co-ordinator of the Miss India South Africa pageant, Nanhoo, 66, is helping turn “ordinary women” into role models and future leaders so they can play a positive role in public life.
“Not many opportunities were afforded to our young women. Apart from getting them to be proficient in the performing arts, they are taught social graces, etiquette, encouraged to study and are backed in their endeavours to reach their ambitions.”
Guiding and teaching runs in the family.
Her father, Munmohanlall Ramlagan, was a teacher along with several members of the extended family. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Nanhoo enrolled for a diploma in education, starting her teaching career at Isipingo Heights Primary.
In 1974, she met and married her husband, Sanjith Nanhoo, who was also a teacher.
Such was the family’s emphasis on education that they left their Cliffdale farm for Durban so that Nanhoo could complete her schooling. The local school went up to only Standard 6 (Grade 8).
She and her three siblings had lived on the farm along with their parents and grandmother.
“Living on the farm was such an amazing and fun experience, especially when you are a child. My family grew vegetables and there was a nearby sugar cane field from which we cut sugar cane,” she recalled.
“My father was a disciplinarian and, being a teacher, he knew the value of education. To ensure we got an education, he bought a house in Isipingo Beach in Durban and took a transfer to a school in Mayville.”
Nanhoo attended St Anthony’s School, then Isipingo Beach Secondary and completed her matric at Clairwood High.
After getting married, she lived with her husband and his parents in Umhlatuzana and thereafter in Kharwastan, where her daughter Kamisha was born. The family later moved to Isipingo, where her son Yeshkal was born. In 1984, Nahnoo was transferred to Merebank High School as a guidance counsellor.
“This position was truly an eye-opener for me and I experienced first hand the challenges faced by our youth,” she said.
When her husband won a US scholarship in 1991, the family moved yet again.
“We packed up our two minor children and set up home in Delaware. This was one of the most exciting experiences in our lives. While my husband studied, I landed a job as a teacher at Palasky Elementary School.”
Nanhoo, who had furthered her studies at Unisa with a bachelors degree in education and thereafter post graduate studies in guidance and counselling, was lucky enough to also receive a scholarship from The New York Institute, which allowed her to also pursue a master’s degree in guidance and counselling.
Life in New York was a culture shock for the family.
“Remember at that time South Africa was just moving away from laws of apartheid and to see white and black people integrate so harmoniously was something that took us by surprise. We managed to fit in quite nicely.”
The family returned to South Africa in 1994 and Nanhoo re-joined Merebank High until 1997 when she took a break from teaching after undergoing heart surgery.
In 2002, she taught briefly at Sastri College and in that same year joined the production team of the Miss India South Africa Pageant.
Nanhoo described the pageant as an innovative leadership programme which used the performing arts to transform the lives of young women.
“Our task is to take ordinary women and groom them to be role models, grow into leaders and play a role in public life,” she said. “Together with my daughter we produced the Africa Night celebrations in Mumbai which took place a night before the pageant. When I am not busy with my work co-ordinating the pageant, I love travelling. I have been to India, New Zealand, Singapore, Amsterdam and Thailand, just to name a few.”
In her leisure time Nanhoo, who lives in a five-bedroom home in Dale Road, Durban, enjoys watching cartoons with her grandsons Nahar and Kirav and keeping fit.
“I have a gym at home, I attend aqua-aerobic classes at least three times a week and I attend the park runs on the weekend. I also go on walks.”