#Unshaken: "I believe in my country. I believe that we can rise because we’ve got good people."
Robyn Le Roux uses the unrest as her motivation to help upskill unemployed women in her community.
Women all over the world are going through something at some point in their lives, whether that is dealing with providing for their families, working hard to make a name for themselves, or just dealing with living in a closed-minded community.
Their stories are unique, inspirational, and allow us to truly embrace the beauty of being a woman. We would love to share everyone's story, if nothing else, just to show them that they are doing great and that we are proud of them. This Women's Month, as we celebrate women who are #unshaken by all that is thrown at them, we found this story about Robyn Le Roux.
Robyn and her husband lost their family business after 25 years due to the looting and riots that happened last month. The heartache and disappointment can take over but they chose to find the good and do something to help people in their community.
There is a part of you that is extremely disappointed, heartbroken that they don’t see that this is their community. But I always believe in showing people that there is a better side to them.
Read more: #Unshaken: Durbanite Alicia Koopman - "The sky is not the limit, you have to go beyond that!"
In true South African spirit, Robyn looked up and saw her fellow community members come together and help with the cleaning up efforts at their business and said:
We will not get to a state where, like many people are saying, we’re going to go completely down as a nation. I believe in my country. I believe that we can rise because, as you see, we’ve got good people.
Robyn, who founded the Chayil Foundation in 2013, has helped her community for many years and didn't want this to stop because of the rioting and state of unrest that many South Africans engaged in.
The Chayil Foundation feeds around 2,000 people per week, assists with drug awareness and rehabilitation efforts, cares for the elderly and daycare services, as well as school shoe drives - and so much more.
In the midst of our country's unemployment crisis and in honour of Women's Month, the Chayil Foundation decided to partner with professional pastry chef Carol Van den Horst, who owns Dezign Cakes, to help upskill 25 women with baking skills so that they can start their own small businesses and create a source of income. (Daily Maverick)
"Van den Horst volunteered her time to teach women over two days this week how to bake the likes of bread, biscuits, scones and Vetkoeks (or ‘fat cakes’ which is fried bread) which they can sell to their local community. Coca-Cola Beverages sponsored a starter pack of ingredients and equipment, which include a baking tray, flour, margarine, baking chocolate and buttermilk." (Daily Maverick)
This isn't just a once-off affair though. They are committed to helping these women actually develop a plan of action and take these acquired skills to the next level.
Once the foundation knows that these women are committed to starting and running their mobile bakeries, then they will assist them with creating a budget and teach them how to do marketing. The aim is to get 20 up and running businesses by next year.
I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m passionate about this because now I’m understanding a lot of what people go through, not having that fixed income right now, the panic. What happened to my business has opened my eyes more to helping people that are in my position — that are actually in a far worse position to what I am in — to get them on their feet.
Image Courtesy of Facebook