Empowering stories from BRAVE Manenberg girls: Overcoming challenges and finding purpose

BRAVE Manenberg girls shared their inspiring stories of overcoming gangsterism, substance abuse, and personal struggles, showcasing their resilience and desire to live purposefully.

They spoke to professional, business, and successful women at a Women's Day programme at a hotel, at the V&A Waterfront on Saturday, August 9. 

Tamia Hendricks, 18, who at the age of ten joined the non-profit group BRAVE, based in Manenberg, said: "I wasn't the girl who had everything together. I was very naughty."

She spoke about the hardships of being a teenager, when people expected her to think like an adult but treated her like a child.

"Now I'm a teenager, life is getting hard.

"My story is not a sad one, but it is a real one. A story about a young girl who thought she would not overcome her fears," she said.

Tamia said: "BRAVE taught me to see my inspiration, my talent, and who I am becoming. There were times when I had to deal with family problems. I was stuck with schoolwork. BRAVE was there." 

"I had to deal with fake friends and always having to put a smile on my face to keep others thinking that I'm happy, even though I'm deeply hurt inside. I cry to myself to bed all of the time," she said.

Tamia shared her fear of getting up in the morning and having to "deal with this thing called life. My group leader used to say 'God won't wake you up if He doesn't have plans for you'". 

The innovative group was founded in 2010 by ten-year-old girls who wanted a safe space at their school. 

Today, 96 girls, from age 10, have experienced workshops to build their confidence, learn a skill and become resilient to be leaders in their communities, schools, and lives.

Three of the founding girls - Kelly Petersen, Audery February, and Lee-Anne Jenkins - now lead BRAVE full-time.

They inspire and empower girls to be leaders, support their initiatives, and help work towards building a network of women and girl leaders across the African continent.  

BRAVE uses the challenge of travel and adventure in wild places to create opportunities for girls and works with those who can provide the resources, knowledge, experience, and safety that girls need to lead.

More than 1 000 girls from the Cape Flats have benefited from Brave's after-school workshops, holiday and weekend camps, micro-adventures, and road trips across South Africa, Kenya, and the US. 

BRAVE alums have received university scholarships to attend African Leadership Academy, and colleges in Japan, Malaysia, and the US. 

Founding member Audery February, fund-raiser and communications officer, said that young girls were often the second parent at home. 

"We want to create a safe space where you can be young. Be yourself. Still focus on the goals and dreams that you have for yourself.

"Mentoring those girls actually makes me feel happy to be able to help those girls achieve their dreams and become something better out of the Manenberg community," she said.

Social worker Alexis Brown worked at BRAVE as a consultant and is now their innovations officer.

"The more sessions I had with them, the more I just felt like I'm going back. Gang violence, anything, I'm dodging those bullets. I'm going back to that community and it just never ever stopped me," she said. 

Ms Brown still goes into the community to chat and connect with the girls. 

In a video showcasing BRAVE's work, the speaker spoke of the importance of individual and collective power as girls and women, to network and support each other. 

Guest speaker Cape Community Media's (CCM) content manager, Tamlynne Thompson, shared a bit about her mother, Lorna James, 63, who was raised in Manenberg and still serves her community today.

In the spirit of collective power, Ms Thompson called on her mother, Lorna, to stand next to her while she delivered her speech. She held her hand and inspired the girls to be their best. 

Her mother was born in Bokmakierie, Hazendal, and moved to Manenberg, where she grew up. Ms Thompson said her mother survived coming out of a community where dreams were silenced. She said her mother also survived a difficult marriage while she raised four children.

She became a seamstress, which allowed her to feed her family and her community.

"Let me tell you, she does far more than sew fabric; she stitches love, sews dignity, and overlocks legacy. So on this Women's Day BRAVE girls of Manenberg. 

"You are not your postcode. You are not your past. You are not the voices that told you you wouldn't make it. You are a possibility. You are power. You are the future," she said.

BRAVE girl Leticia Bailey, 19, said she was raised by both parents and that she has two sisters. 

She dropped out of school and recently her dad died. Leticia said had it not been for BRAVE she would not be back at school completing her matric.  

"I am proud of myself," she said.

She has learned the love for cooking and dance with the classes at BRAVE.

"Just to be excited about life," she said. 

Leticia said now she can be brave for her mother and sisters.

Another mentor Viola Manuel, who sits on various non-governmental organisations and companies, said: "Bloom, grow wherever you are planted."

She used the tree analogy to encourage the girls to tell their stories, make connections, and embrace where they are at to grow and bloom (with the opportunities given to them by BRAVE). 

"Even when you grow into a beautiful oak tree, never forget where your roots are. Your roots are still in this place where you are planted. So stay there. Look down every now and again, and remember all of the other little plants that are taking shade in this beautiful oak tree you've become," she said. 

Ms Manuel encouraged the girls not to forget their because it help shape them.