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Cape Town – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made their first official appearance on Monday afternoon at Nyanga, a township in Cape Town South Africa, and received a very warm welcome from the community.
On their visit they saw the work being done by an initiative of the Justice Desk – an NGO supported by The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust of which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex serve as president and vice-president – as it teaches children about their rights, self-awareness and safety and provides self-defence classes and female empowerment training to young girls in the community who have suffered significant trauma.
'Waithint’ abafazi wathint’imbokodo' is the project’s motto, which translates to 'When you strike a woman, you strike a rock'.
The couple arrived at Nyanga Methodist Church where they met with Jessica Dewhurst, Justice Desk Founder and Queen’s Young Leader, and Theodora Luthuli, Justice Desk Community Leader. After a walk through the community, the Duke and Duchess made their way into the learning centre, where they were introduced to the centre’s founder, Sylvia Hobe before observing the Mbokodo Girls’ Empowerment programme.
The Duke and Duchess observed as the girls broke into their four training groups, before sitting down and forming an intimate circle in which they engaged in discussion.
The girls also recited Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson, the club’s anthem and the same poem Meghan read at the annual Christmas carol service at St. Luke’s in London, in support of the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund – which was named after one of Prince Harry’s friends, who died in a car crash in 2002. The Duchess reminded then that the poem shares the same mission of the memorial fund, which works to help children at schools in Uganda to empower children.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure," she read, as the girls powerfully echoed those words once more.
