Inspiration

Meet Robyn Smookler - the heart, soul and brains behind our inspiring journey. In her communications with the members of the Kili team, she alternately calls us affectionately "Tribe" and "Dream Team". If we are her Tribe, than she is no doubt the chieftain, and if we are her "Dream Team" - she is unequivocally the Master Dreamer who pulled this assembly of disparate women together into a cohesive entity with one goal. And she did it because of her passionate belief in a critical cause.

Robyn is the Manager of ORT's youngest initiative - the Women's Empowerment Division which opened towards the end of 2011 in response to a growing awareness that countless vulnerable women are in need of far more than a monthly welfare package. ORT, as an organisation is committed to "Educating people for life". Their scope is vast; their dreams ambitious. ORT affiliates go into South Africa's townships to reach and inspire school children. They train educators countrywide, emphasising excellence in the education of maths and science. They provide guidance and workshops to facilitate financial independence and help struggling / start-up businesses through their training initiatives and mentoring programmes.

Since the inception of the Women's Empowerment Division, Robyn's database has collected the names of 300 women who find themselves rearing children alone - for all the reasons you can think of and probably more. They are widowed, divorced, abandoned. They have been abused and have been courageous enough to walk away from their tormentors. In the past 6 months, Robyn's  department has trained over 100 women in the areas of computer skills, financial planning and budgeting, motivation and goal-setting not to mention facilitating job placement. Significantly, Robyn has created and initiated a free legal intervention programme to assist divorcees whose ex-husbands renege on child support and alimony commitments. But Robyn's vision is broader than this. She is working towards the opening of a Women's Empowerment Academy - a place to train marketable skills in order to secure meaningful, sustainable employment. This is a dream to raise hope and restore dignity.

Robyn's dream emerged over the past 6 months when daily contact with some of the women under her watchful care revealed the mountain of their daily burdens. Many of them were working full time, but for meagre incomes, remuneration that forced them into making decisions about whether they could supply the roof over their children's heads or the food in the fridge and needing to sacrifice basic necessities in a horrendous juggling act of deprivation and desperation.  These mothers needed hope; they needed respite. Robyn reasoned, what if there were a group of women, able-bodied, willing, brave enough to conquer a real mountain in support of women facing metaphoric mountains every day? For some of her charges, true courage involves getting out of bed every single day and doing what needs to be done for their families. What if a group of women faced the challenges of extreme altitude, temperatures of -25 degrees; physical exertion and exhaustion in order to raise awareness and funds that would enable a climb out of despair, a climb towards hope? Thus, the Kili Team was born. 

The call went out and was answered by a diverse group of women. Married and single, mothers and sisters, Jewish, Christian, Hindu. 18 women, professionals in every possible sphere of human endeavour committed themselves to taking on Africa's tallest mountain on 9 August.  On National Women's Day, Robyn's "Tribe"  will climb Mt Kilimanjaro to pledge their support of women across all our communities and pay tribute to their innate strength and bravery in facing what many of us would think of as unimaginable challenges every single day. 

If you believe as we do, that the best way to give to someone is to equip them not with a food parcel but with the ability to earn, not with a welfare cheque but with marketable skills, not with gratefulness but with dignity - then join us on our incredible journey.

Pledge your support in honour of a special woman in your life - either in memory of  a precious soul who inspired you, or by acknowledging someone special in your life now. This can be someone who who overcame or currently does battle with, her own mountains. It can be someone who gave you the certainty and strength to rise to your own challenges. For all the women you love and to whom you pay tribute, send us your pledge and a photo. With the photos, we will create a banner -  a symbol of love and triumph in the face of adversity which will be with us every step of our momentous journey. We will carry the women who have loved, nurtured and carried you in order to pave the way forward for other women who in turn need to become the banners and inspiration for the people in their lives. This is just the beginning. Climb with us by reaching out and up. Join the Kili Team as we break through our own personal barriers to inspire, enable, uplift and ultimately empower.

For more information on how you can support this worthwhile cause, contact Robyn at: robyn@ortjet.org.za

by Tali Frankel