In remembering the significance of Woman’s Day on Monday 9th August and to pay respect to the approximately 20 000 women who on 09 August 1956 participated in a national march in protest of pass laws, MTN through its Foundation today hosted a luncheon to highlight the plight of children of women who are incarcerated, at Kyalami.  The focus of the day is to educate and create an awareness of women who are incarcerated with special emphasis on the children of inmates.

The line-up for the day will kick off with award-winning Rhodessa Jones who hails from San Francisco, who will perform her one-woman show Big Butt Girls, Hard Headed Women. Rhodessa is a powerful force in this thought-provoking and insightful show. The play is based on the lives and times of real women behind bars.

This will be followed by a panel discussion with Eunice Maluleke, Head of MTN SA Foundation, two social workers, a representative from NICRO, an organisation that helps ex-prisoners transform back into society.  Also in the panel will be Dr. Zubeda Dangor from the Nisaa Institute for Women’s Development who assist abused women and their children through counselling, shelter, training and public awareness programmes.  The discussion will deal mainly with the many challenges women in prison face and how this impacts their children’s future.

Dr Dangor said: “Until women and children are free from the shackles of oppression, society cannot claim its freedom.”

Commenting at the event, Eunice said; “Our involvement in the Women‘s Day celebration is in line with our Corporate Social Investment strategy and in particular dealing with women and children’s issues.  As women and as mothers, our main focus is on the children of the women prisoners in helping them reintegrate into their communities and standing the chance of having a better life. We believe that awareness of the children’s plight will empower society to prevent the recurrence of having the children of the prisoners being prisoners themselves.”

“While our core focus is on the upliftment of rural cluster communities, we nevertheless recognise that there are many other projects and initiatives deserving of our support and that align with MTN SA’s position as a caring corporate citizen. With the coming 16 days of activism later in the year, we would be leading a campaign to mobilise our colleagues to donate their time and services to help women and children in need,” continued Eunice.