Authors and food enthusiasts were among those who made presentations at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) Women’s Day Luncheon on Friday, 5 August 2016 at the Johannesburg Country Club.
“This Women’s Month, we demonstrate our appreciation to UJ women for all your hard work, commitment and contribution towards making this institution what it is,” said Tumi Mketi, Deputy Vice Chancellor. UJ’s Institutional Advancement, the Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Tourism and Hospitality and the UJ Library partnered together for this event to honour the female staff from all levels within UJ.
The topic of, Slow Food: Building family over dinner created much interest among the attendees. Speakers included Dr Michael Mol – Medical Doctor, TV presenter (Top Billing), Author of Your Best Life with John Berry (Kauai Health Foods), food enthusiast and author of Welcome to my Table – Siba Mtongana and Caroline McCann, Slow Food International Councilor of Southern Africa.
National Women’s Day celebrates women’s achievements in advancing Women’s Rights. “Building family over dinner”, highlights the impact that eating meals together has in building family values and communication. Dr Rookaya Bawa, Executive Director: UJ Library said, “The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of slowing down our lives enough to enjoy our families and the health benefits of good home cooked food.”
The MC for the event was the entertaining, Mapaseka Mokwele; Siba Mtongana was enduring as she shared her personal journey to finding her passion and being authentic as she grew her career.
She inspired women to push themselves to be better, to be brave enough to know what they want, be courageous enough to go against the current.
Caroline McCann emphasized the importance of how slow food builds families and bring families together around a dining table. McCann alerted us on how food is a critical element of women expressing themselves as well as the pressures that woman feel to excel in their careers as well as to raise their families.
Dr Michael Mol had the audience enthralled by his talk “the Truth about You” which encouraged us to celebrate what`s right about us, not to constantly try to fix what is wrong.
Dr Mol said:” you can be anything you want to be, but you must aim to be much more of who you already are.”
Dr Jabulile Manana, General practitioner, Gauteng Department of Health ended by thanking everyone for their attendance and participation. Two lucky winners from the audience won Dr Michael Mol`s book, “Your best life”.
This event was a success in remembering and celebrating women in their various career and life struggles to achieve better education and greater equity for woman.