This year’s Take a Girl Child to Work Day took place on 24 May with corporates across the country inviting schoolgirls to spend a day at their organisation to get a sense of the working world.
The Makro store in Riversands celebrated the day with a difference though, inviting both boys and girls to experience the world of retail up close.
“We invited both boys and girls this year because we didn’t want to exclude anyone, we wanted to expose all children to the working world,” said Farzana Sonvadi of the store. “We invited 42 children from the Tomorrow Trust to come through on the day.”
The Tomorrow Trust is a non-profit organisation which provides educational support to vulnerable children and is supported by Makro.
“We want to open up their minds to the careers available in the retail world. They [took] a tour around all the divisions at the store, learning about things such as the food division, the multimedia division, the finance department and human resources.”
The 42 children were divided into two groups so the tours could be staggered timewise. Questions from the children were welcomed, and after learning about the store, the children also experienced a talk about how best to study, enjoyed a good lunch and finished the day with a goodie bag filled with stationery from the store to help them with schoolwork.
“The children are in grades 10, 11 and 12 and come from Tembisa High School and Ingqayizivele Secondary School,” said Thandi Sokujika, a Saturday School coordinator with the Tomorrow Trust who also took part in the first tour. “They were very happy and excited to be here.
“We hope that the exposure to seeing the different careers available in retail will inspire them.”
The children involved all take part in Tomorrow Trust’s Saturday Schools, where they are bussed to a venue each Saturday and are given support in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects, as well as in English.
Details: www.tomorrow.org.za
