Early in June 2022, Paulah Mothotoane, a Bachelor of Divinity student in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria, participated in an outreach organised by a UP partner organisation, Elim Full Gospel Church, to the Middelburg Care Village in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

This outreach is one of the preparatory steps she and a small team of students are taking together before their tour of several African countries during the mid-year break, during which time they will raise awareness about the need for empowering young women by providing them with encouragement to tell their stories.

The trip was a great success, as Ms Mothotoane herself describes it:

“We visited a child and youth care centre named Middelburg Care Village. It caters for children and youth aged 3 to 18. For our Talk About Her initiative, which is related to our Africa trip, we ladies from UP decided to host a career exhibition day there, as well as the students who live around that area.

We later had a one-on-one session with the girls from the Care Village. Each of us worked with 2 to 3 girls. The sessions were like bonding time, doing each other's nails using nail polish. The girls had many colours to choose from and I personally found it interesting because I felt like the colours they chose represented their personalities. We had sister-to-sister conversations about the simple and hard things in life and the in between, encouraging them where we could.

It was so fun and transforming for me. I was privileged to have 3 girls who were comfortable enough to share their background, struggles and goals. I opted to have us all sit and talk as a group and they agreed. So, the 3 of them got to hear each other talk and I hope that exercise strengthens their relationship. They were also welcomed to speak to me privately if they wanted. It was truly an honour to just do less of the talking and be there to listen to them. We brought little gift packages for them as well. We talked to the man in charge of the Care Village and he shared some of the challenges they face at the home and how people can best help them. It made us see the beautiful work that is being done for the girls and boys.”