Empowering function for women
An event to empower women, organised by a Mossel Bay preschool, took place on Saturday, 30 July.
It was a vintage high tea, organised by MossKiddo’s preschool in Heiderand, and held at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Extension 6.
The diverse speakers at the event each imparted a special, encouraging message. They were retired, former police colonel Una Saayman, who was deputy commander of the Da Gamaskop Cluster of police stations, ACVV Social Services auxiliary social worker Joycelynn Cupido and book writer Karen Swanepoel, who lost her husband and both children in a motor accident.
Saayman spoke about the challenge of dealing with trauma as part her police work. She recounted motor accidents where she saw dismembered bodies and had had to face members of the public whose family had died.
Faith in God
She had relied on her faith in God to be able to cope and had often had to escape to a quiet place while at work, to breathe in and out slowly to calm herself.
She told the audience when she began, that she had been empowered by her experiences. Saayman used the word, human, as an acronym for her speech.
H - Be humble. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
U - She said it was important to be understandable.
M - Be mindful of others.
A - Affectionate.
N - Nurture. She said as a leader, one should look after others, develop them and help them grow.
Authoritatively
Although young in her career and not yet a fully-fledged social worker, Cupido spoke authoritatively and knowledgeably about child neglect and abuse in Mossel Bay communities and how members of communities sometimes made it difficult for the ACVV to fulfil its mandate of protecting children.
Cupido stressed the need for a children’s home in Mossel Bay, a need which the ACVV has expressed a number of times over the years. The closest children’s home is in George.
Saayman said it had upset her when she saw someone who was not keen to see one of their staff promoted and transferred to a better career opportunity, simply because they felt they needed them where they were.
Swanepoel, whose book is called, Ek sal weer ‘n loflied sing, told of her journey, from losing her family in a motor accident, to marrying again and having two children.