Statement by Mark Rountree, National Policy Officer for GOOD
5 August 2021
“When you empower a woman‚ you empower a community” says GOOD’s leader, Patricia de Lille. GOOD is the only woman-led political party in the South African National Parliament.
“The theme for 2021 Women’s Month is ‘Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights for an Equal Future’ and inspires societies to work to achieve gender equality by 2030” says Mark Rountree, the National Policy Officer for GOOD.
“GOOD works for a united, equitable and just society. We committed in 2019 to support workers and small businesses across South Africa to enable growth and this Women’s Day, we are partnering with several other organisations to deliver on that promise for Women’s Month” says Rountree.
“GOOD is partnering with the #SheMeansBusiness initiative, an international training programme that works in partnership with Facebook to provide training in digital marketing to entrepreneurial women. The workshops which will happen through the month of August are to help start or expand their businesses using Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram social media channels.”
The #SheMeansBusiness training programme was launched in 2016 and has already trained over 1 million women in 38 countries. In South Africa, Siyafunda – an e-learning school – and NPC Amanzi4Life have partnered with GOOD to make one thousand #SheMeansBusiness training opportunities available during Women’s Month.
These free 90 minute workshops will be run over Zoom to provide this training. Successful participants who require airtime to attend the training will receive airtime vouchers from Siyafunda. All participants will receive guidance on how to install and use Zoom before the workshop starts.
“I was kindly invited to attend one of the workshops and was inspired and really learned a lot. This is a really great opportunity for anyone looking for how to grow a business. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”
In South Africa, “women make up 51% of the population, but less than 21% of board members on listed companies are female. Some companies have no female leadership representation at all” said Rountree. “GOOD is very proud to work in partnership to empower more women entrepreneurs.”
To apply to register for the training course, join this WhatsApp group https://chat.whatsapp.com/JsvSD4MSuIqKIMhWdneueK or follow GOOD’s social media pages @ForGOODza for more details.