School of Courage & Confidence

School of Courage & Confidence

There are many things that make South Africa unique and extraordinary compared to the rest of the world. One of them being the relationship we develop with our domestic workers who spend the majority of their lives looking after and improving our family’s wellbeing, while they sacrifice theirs. They look after our homes year after year and in some cases are expected to be invisible yet constant. They help us manage our day-to-day responsibilities giving us the priceless and precious time to be our best selves to our family, friends and community. These remarkable women co-parent with us and know everything about our families, witnessing all of our trials and tribulations, our strengths and our weaknesses. There is the hope, the trust and the reliance on both sides that together we are able to support and help each other in the case of an emergency - from a fall down the stairs to a choking or hurt child or grandparent, to an intruder breaking into the property, to just caring for each other when either of us is unwell.

The School of Courage & Confidence (@SchoolofCandC) is a personal development course for this overlooked segment of our society who is so often taken for granted and undervalued. Both Domestic Workers & the cleaners at businesses, schools, shopping malls and gyms can go unseen and invisible for a vast majority of their working careers. There are very few opportunities available to them to improve their day-to-day living conditions. Plus, with the astonishing number of upper and middle class South African’s emigrating, it leaves a wake of unemployment for this sector – as many of whom are uneducated and incapable of finding work in other sectors.

For four consecutive Saturday’s from 10am until 2pm, a group of up to sixteen experts and volunteers from Cape Town hope to pay it forward, uplift and up-skill these individuals through a specially designed programme of basic and practical subjects and life skills, that will allow these women the opportunity to make the day to day stressors of a life in South Africa a little more manageable. By building their confidence and helping them to find their inner courage to ask questions and continuously to learn, we hope to provide this often overlooked segment of society a stronger foundation for reducing poverty, improving health, enabling them to be more productive and essentially enjoy a better quality of life.