Miss SA rolls out Unbreakable campaign
[caption id="attachment_220068" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Miss SA Demi-Leigh Nel Peters with Mark Grobbelaar[/caption]
Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters’s Unbreakable campaign kicks off next month with workshops rolling out at a number of venues throughout Gauteng and with one in Cape Town.
Unbreakable takes place at Sun International’s Times Square in Pretoria, as well as community centres in Diepsloot, Soweto, Mamelodi and Observatory.
Nel-Peters has worked closely on the initiative with Mark Grobbelaar, a sixth Dan karate expert, who gave up his corporate job to create an organisation called Woman INPowered (WIP) which aims to empower women when faced with life-threatening situations.
She has also collaborated with MasterDrive, an advanced driver training company.
“The Unbreakable campaign aims to educate, uplift and empower South African women. This they can start to do by taking care of themselves and making wise decisions,” said Nel-Peters.
The Sedgefield-born celebrity was inspired to launch Unbreakable because of the attempted hijacking she experienced earlier this year: “It was an awful experience but I knew how to handle the situation in the best possible way, because I had done WIP and MasterDrive workshops for women that focused on everything from hijacking and robberies and how to handle these situations, to how to get out of toxic and abusive relationships.
“I am a firm believer that knowledge is power and the information I learnt on these courses certainly helped me. So now – together with Mark – we will set up similar workshops.”
The inspiration behind WIP is Alison Botha, another well-known personality from the Southern Cape, and who endorses the programme.
In December 1994, Alison was abducted outside her home by two men who raped, stabbed and disembowelled her. They slashed her throat and left her for dead. Alison survived.
Since then she has become a motivational speaker, author and was the subject of the acclaimed documentary film Alison, which became the first South African movie to be shown at the prestigious Dances with Films film festival in Los Angeles.
“We aim to change the way women view self-defense by seeing the power in being able to take control and, by doing so, changing the outcome of a situation. It is extremely simple, easy to learn and yet devastatingly effective,” Grobbelaar said.
Managing director of MasterDrive Eugene Herbert said: “Whenever we hear that our hijack extraction course has been of real use to someone, it is always gratifying. Being hijacked is an extremely traumatising experience and, if our course helps someone think through the fear, even in some small way, there is no greater reward.
“Our objective is to help every person who ever finds themself in this unfortunate position, escape it safely. I encourage every person who learns these skills, to share them with as many as possible.”
Nel-Peters concluded: “I hope to hand over my crown next year knowing that I did everything in my capability to inspire women to believe in themselves, to value themselves and to know that asking for help does not mean you are weak.”
