Byline: Kelebogile Masemola

04 July 2022

Youth Empowerment Ambassadors Organisation hosted a healthy lifestyle talk at Abel Motshoane Secondary School in Slovo, Mabopane, addressing the ambiguous concern of Gender Based-Violence.

The event which occurred on Saturday, 02 July 2022, started with a session which the youngsters of the school were educated and informed about gender-based violence and finished with a Netball Friendly Tournament.

Founder & CEO of Youth Empowerment Ambassadors Organisation, Tebogo Nhlapo said the purpose of the tournament was to embrace the inner beauty of a girl child and to help them learn how to stand for themselves, go to school and get a better life.

“In life, we face so many challenges and we must remember that the beauty of life does not depend on how happy your are but on how happy others can be because of you.

Be yourself and never wish to be the person next to you because you do not know what the other person is thinking or what they are going through.

Let us not be violent towards each other, you do not have to beat or do bad unto each other, whenever you are faced with a challenge or you are in an argument with someone, laying your hands on that person is not the solution.

If ever there is a situation where someone lays their hands on you, the best thing you can do is go report the matter to the police, violence is not a solution to the problem,” said Nhlapo.

The session had rape survivor, Kamogelo Sebopela as the keynote speaker, who spoke on her situation of being raped and how she survived the ordeal.

“Being raped was the most traumatising experience of my life and I will probably never forget what happened to me but that experience made me yearn to share my experience with my peers because I do not want anyone to go through what I went through.

I am pleading with you to choose your friends wisely, I know young people your age love having friends and many feel the need to please friends by doing wrong things.

Peer pressure is real, you need to choose the people you hang around wisely because when things go bad, your friends will be nowhere to be found, you will be left alone in the darkness,” said Sebopela.

Sebopela added that she had no friends to lean on in her days of darkness, she only had her family, she pleaded with the young girls to focus on their studies and make their parents proud.

Care-packs with sanitary pads and sanitisers inside were given to girl children at the end of the session.