Pinehas Nakaziko
Windhoek-Meriam Paulus Meriam, 19, from Jacob Marengo Tutorial College, one of the youngest women who attended this year’s annual Women of Destiny (WOD) Cinderella Ball at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek last Saturday, says the event taught her how to know her values as a young woman.
She also learned how to stay away from negative things that young women currently face.
“I learned a lot from the motivational speeches that ‘we’ the younger generation should study because one never know what the future holds, and to bear in mind that everything starts ‘today’ because tomorrow may never come,” says Meriam.
The event was attended by a large number of matric-age girls, members of the public and some government officials. It is held every year towards enabling underprivileged and destitute Grade 12 females to attend their much-anticipated matric farewells.
Two organisations, WOD and the Africa Institutional Management Services, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to train underprivileged women through AIMS.
Members of the public were also encouraged to make donations of dresses, jewellery and shoes for vulnerable girls’ matric farewell dresses, and over 500 dresses and pairs of shoes were donated.
This is apart from those that have been collected since the initiative was first publicised a couple of months ago.
The donated stuff will be sent to selected girls throughout the 14 regions who have been identified by their school counsellors as being underprivileged or destitute.
Cynthia Martin-Haihambo from WOD announced the charity organisation’s Renewable Energy bursary for female matriculants in an effort to encourage female representation in energy-related fields of study.
“The application procedure for the bursary, as well as the programmes that will be offered through the AIMS partnership, will be advertised in local media in due course,” said Martin-Haihambo.