Tonota Society for Gender and Human Rights

Short story about your most memorable experience in your work as a leader* My most memorable experience is when we embarked on the Global Youth Service Day which came about as a result of our YWCA Youth Skills Training Workshop. After learning about the international day, I thought this would be a wonderful way to follow up the training. At the end of the workshop, I sold the idea to them and set up a planning meeting where the youth could work together to plan the event. The following week, over 20 youths showed up to the meeting and came up with a clean-up campaign. With help from the Tonota Society for Gender and Human Rights (Tonota Society), the youth picked the date, time and location for the event. We were even able to get support from the Tonota Sub Council and the MP Office. The turn up to the event was overwhelming with over 100, youth participating in picking up rubbish from the Tonota bus rank to Choppies. We were lucky to have the MP for Tonota and Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture stop by and donate water and snacks. He also gave the youth a motivating speech about the importance of staying in school. This event led to the formation of Tonota Youth Council which will now work hand in hand with the Tonota Society. Together we are planning more events for the future including an upcoming talent show at the end of May. Although the idea of starting a youth council was not in the original Tonota Society plan, it has inspired me to work hard and has brought joy to my heart. I have learned that staying flexible and keeping an open mind to new opportunities that present themselves has proven very successful. The most emotional time for me as a leader was approaching a survivor in Tonota Village to come and give her testimony during our 2014 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence commemoration. It was very emotional for her to tell her story in public. I had to go to TCE and ask her supervisors to release her for that particular day. It was like invading someone ’s personal life but I knew I had to do it. As a leader I had the courage to make all the necessary preparation with the social workers and our society in order to prepare her to speak at our event. In the end, she gave an emotional account of her personal experiences with gender based violence and showed our audience the pictures of her ordeal. ” With all that I have accomplished over the past 2 years, I feel like I qualify to be nominated as a driver of change as I have been actively involved in driving issues of gender equality in my community. The years are few but in the last years of service as a councillor I was able to accomplish a lot even thorough Tonota Sub District Gender Committee has not

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