Deputy speaker for the provincial parliament, Beverley Schäfer, accompanied Shandana Gulzar Khan, chairperson of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP), on a visit to the Helderberg Baby Saver at the Choices Pregnancy Centre, local NPO Masikhule and Great Beginnings Educare in Asanda Village, as well as their Teachers’ Early Learning Resource Library on Tuesday (12 November).
Khan is a Pakistani politician who has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August last year. After meeting Schäfer at a CWP event abroad last week, she was invited to assist in setting up a CWP branch in the Western Cape.
“Part of this process is to evaluate socio-economic issues affecting women and children in our communities, how to better address these issues and discussions on choices available to them,” commented Schäfer.
Khan would visit various organisations throughout Cape Town during her three-day visit, which includes a development workshop with all women parliamentary employees.
Khan said part of the CWP involved tackling issues where female parliamentarians can help women, grow a network and keep women safe. “Women’s issues are the same all over the world and we need to equip women with tools in their hands and [make it] easily available, so that problems and challenges can be addressed effectively,” she said.
“We have similar problems in Pakistan such as unwanted children and have also set up ECD centres. I think there’s a lot of lessons we can learn from South Africa in terms of integration and how things are handled here. Likewise South Africa can take some of our lessons and implement it in this community.”
Leanne Keet, founder of Masikuhle, and Sandy Immelman of Helderberg Baby Saver also took Schäfer and Khan on a tour of the facilities.
