High school hits back at abuse

KNYSNA NEWS - Would you believe it if someone was to tell you that Percy Mdala High school in their 29 years of existence has never really embraced their women until recently?

Well, best believe it as during the school's Never Again event on Friday 17 August, the principal Nicholas Njozela said this was the first time they as the school were stepping up to change the narrative of women, and acknowledged the instrumental role women played in the building of the school.

The programme consisted of various speakers who each shared personal stories of overcoming traumatic events in their lives, with the first being Charmaine Botha, the founder of the Never Again programme.

She told how she survived sexual abuse very early in her life, how no one believed her, how she survived an abusive marriage and finally broke free.

Another speaker, a social worker from Knysna Initiative for Learning and Teaching, Nomcebo Cekeshe, reflected on how she survived a gang rape while in Grade 11. The learners were so moved, some to tears, by her story that you could hear a penny drop in the hall as she described how the thought of committing suicide crossed her mind many times but then how she found refuge in the form of workshops and talks at her school. "If we didn't have such talks at my school, I don't know how I would've survived," Cekeshe said.

She said she received excellent help from the police and social workers and because of her ordeal, she chose to be a social worker and today she is offering the same comfort that was offered to her.

Njozela vouched during the programme to never let any such misfortunes happen in future to anyone at Percy Mdala and added, "Not in our name."

Percy Mdala High School principal Nicholas Njozela.