SA Heroines
At Spekko we’re celebrating strong South African women this month, and we’re spotlighting two who definitely fit the bill. One is local pop sensation, Toya Delazy, and the other, SA’s own champion of the environment, Catherine Constantinides. As it happens, they have a lot in common. They’re both huge names in their industries, with Toya being a multi award-winning artist, and Catherine no less than the executive of two influential, public-minded enterprises. They’re also refreshingly polite and down to earth. But beyond anything else, giving back is what makes these SA heroines great.
Toya
Toya is spending much of this year touring behind her latest album, playing shows in the UK, Malawi, New York and South Africa. As always, one of her major reasons for performing is to make people strong through the messages in her music.
Hit Songs
Some of Toya’s biggest hits have been about breaking out of situations that make us sad. ‘Pump It On’ is one of them. It’s a single off of her South African Music Awarding-winning debut album, and it’s about fulfilling your dreams, even if circumstances are against you.
Lyrics
You know this life can crush your goals
You’ve got to know you’re not alone
Fly free and live free
Another of her songs, ‘With You’, is about being grateful for the special people in your life. It’s one she wrote for her mother.
More from Toya
@ToyaDelazy Tweets (Maybe we could retweet these.) I like the idea of including tweets – it’s different to what we’ve done before. Maybe would suggest just including one though especially as we have song lyrics too. However retweeting them is a great idea
16 July 2015: We are all winners and losers within. It’s what we choose to become that counts.
Catherine
Catherine spends a lot of her time travelling for environmental projects. North Africa, South America, South East Asia: every piece of our planet is precious to her. We’re lucky enough to have her in SA, though, where she’s the executive of LEADSA, as well as the executive director of Miss Earth SA.
LEADSA
The project publishes stories of South Africans doing what they can to make the country a better place. The scale of the deed isn’t important, though. Rather, it’s about people stepping up, and making a difference.
Some examples of recent stories include:
A master’s student gives free guitar lessons to young children.
A married couple provides a home for vulnerable youths.
A student uses his school holidays to repair his school.
Miss Earth SA
The idea behind Miss Earth SA is to empower women in the environment space. The project accepts people from all over South Africa, and shares knowledge of how to protect the environment with them. That creates a situation where they can go back to their communities and improve things.
More from Catherine
@ChangeAgentSA tweets
22 July 2015: A thought for today… Remember, if it doesn’t open, it’s not your door. It’s that simple.