Uplifting stories to be shared at seminar for domestic workers
A NEW Brighton entrepreneur is inviting domestic workers to a free motivational seminar at the Feather Market Centre on Saturday morning.
Periwinkle Home Executives chief executive Zanele Diniso invites anyone who works as a domestic to the workshop, which will be held from 10am to 1pm.
Programme director Gigi Mesani will oversee the proceedings, which include a talk by keynote speaker Noluvo Gilo and domestic worker Vusiwe Bacela, as well as addresses by representatives from the department of labour, the CCMA and a bank.
Diniso said Gilo was a domestic worker who, while working in that field, got her learner driver’s licence and also studied towards a B Com degree.
Bacela, she said, once worked for retail business tycoon Raymond Ackerman in Cape Town and now was back in Port Elizabeth in a position as a domestic.
“These are untold stories that should be bragged about, because taking care of your family while waking up every morning to take care of somebody else’s is not child’s play and does not come easy,” Diniso said.
“This work has been around for ages but it is still undermined,” Diniso said.
She hopes that by hosting the seminar she can highlight to her audience that “there are others that are doing this, have done it and changed their lives”.
The idea is that the speakers will share their stories and leave the domestic workers both informed and motivated.
Herself the daughter of a bus driver and domestic worker, Diniso has been running Periwinkle for nearly five years to train domestic workers, place them and also provide a babysitting service for hotels.
Diniso was one of the NMB Business Chamber’s Top 40 Under 40 Young Achievers in 2015 and also a finalist in the Businesswomen’s Association regional business achiever awards this year.
ý More information on the seminar, which is sponsored by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and the Radisson Blu Hotel, from (041) 399-9506.