Three local Mrs South Africa semi-finalists are hoping to use their platform to plough back into their communities and inspire the next generation.
Northern News talked to three of the semi-finalists who hail from Elsies River, Durbanville and Bellville, to share their journey, challenges as well as their goals as they navigate through the competition.
Mrs SA is defined as an empowerment programme helping married women become ambassadors on a global scale with self-development, community work, business networking and empowering workshops as some of the core pillars of their journey, according to Mrs SA’s website.
Elsies River resident Lauren Collison hopes to empower the youth in her community, especially those who lack direction, with career counselling and skills development workshops.
“I started working in admin in 2011 but I knew I never wanted to stay in this field for the rest of my life. I then decided I needed to study, learn more skills and grow. Later I started moving through different divisions such as employee benefits, group risk and I picked up specialised skills in these departments. I realised then after this experience that I had a natural aptitude for learning systems and loved analytics. I then wondered why I never did any career counselling at my school”.
She adds that it would be beneficial for the youth to have more access to career counsellors who can help identify their natural talents and possible fields of work they could pursue.
“I’d actually like to start mentoring and coaching young women at my high school in Elsies and the community by giving them guidelines as to how you approach an interview, which career choices you can take and help them with identifying their strengths,” she said.
Britt de Bie Stoffberg, a local business owner and mom from Durbanville, said that a chance encounter with a friend at one of their networking events sparked her interest in entering the competition.
“She pushed me to enter Mrs. SA. Her motivation was that the exposure would help more women become aware of my business. Mrs SA is not a beauty pageant in the traditional sense of the word. It’s an empowerment programme for women and you will only make it through hard work – not money and most certainly not just by having a pretty face.”
When asked what some of her challenges have been throughout her journey with Mrs SA, she said: “We need to meet certain requirements such as selling tickets to events that we need to host all based in Johannesburg, so for me to sell a ticket to friends and family within my network makes it so much harder because they would need to consider taking off work, booking flights, paying for accommodation.“
She adds that the women she has met who have previously taken part in Mrs SA, have inspired her with their confidence and authority and how they command when they walk into a room.
Lynette Rörich, from Bellville, says she entered Mrs SA to seek a platform to assist her with growth, empowerment, self-discovery and equipping her with tools to grow her career outside of her usual comfort zone.
When asked what have been some of the highlights of her Mrs SA journey thus far, she said: “I’ve learnt that you’re more capable than you think and the importance of setting goals and taking small steps to reach the summit and not to be overshadowed by the ’large mountain’ in front of you”.
Mrs SA 2022 will be crowned in Johannesburg on Friday November 11.