One never knows how much troubles you have, until you see what someone else has been through. Recently, we were at our monthly Woman at Work function – we are their official photographers, and we get to photograph their events every month which they hold at different venues and where they have a different guest speaker every month. Recently, we listened to Jess Foord’s story – rape survivor from Kwazulu Natal, who was gang-raped by 4 men in 2008.

Yes has a lovely personality and, she really looks at peace with what has happened. After the ordeal she decided to take her story all over the country, and started the Jess Foord foundation, – a non-profit organization that helps many rape victims and they also do all in their power to prevent it from happening. She is such a lovely young woman who recently got married to her dream-guy, who understood her situation from day one.

Jess taught us, that no matter how far or hard you fall, there is always a way to get up, and it’s important to take such a step. If you take the time to look around, you’ll see the support and love around you, and know that somehow, you’ll definitely get through your hard situation.

Yolandi Jacobsz

Professional event Photography

Tracy Gold was the guest speaker for this month’s woman at work event which was held at the Glenvista country club.  A little more info on Tracy:

“Tracy Gold is the founder of The House of Tracy Gold, a fashion studio established in 2003 that carries the Tracy Gold and HTG Exclusive ranges.  As the head designer, wardrobe planner, personal stylist and fashion writer, Tracy’s fashion philosophy takes a holistic approach and her passion is to assist women to create their own individual style that reflects who they are.  Due to her experience in a number of related fields, including interior design, the natural health industry and working as a group-work facilitator, Tracy is sensitive to the age, body shape and attitude of her clients.  This enables her to assist them to dress in a style that matches and compliments their unique personality and life stage.Tracy recently opened her Johannesburg fashion studio at Triba where she offers personal consultations and free fashion days.   She regularly hosts workshops and presentations in South Africa that address topics ranging from “How to lose 5kg just by getting dressed in the morning” to “Presenting the professional image of your company”.Tracy regularly appears on TV and radio and is also the resident fashion expert and columnist for Women24.com, Spice 4 Life, Destiny Connect.”

She told us that instead of dressing to hide your so called “problem areas” to rather dress to disguise them.  When you dress to hide a certain area of your body, the only thing you end up doing is accentuating it.  So in reality you are making it look bigger…  When dressing to disguise an area of your body you should be dressing to accentuate something you do like and shifting the attention to another part of your body, you are effectively “disguising” the part you don’t like as much.  Tracy Gold then also did a mini-makeover on the spot, and after a brief description of my style and profession she dressed me in a totally different outfit (which I would have never through of myself) and all the ladies attending the event loved it, so she obviously know what she’s doing

Zephne from Silver Lining Functions spponsored the decor and let me tell you the venue looked absolutely stunning!!!  Everything from the silver “under plates” on the table to the pink candles floating serenely in a vase was expertly done. 

Woman at work is the brainchild of two very good friends and business partners Toni Mackrell and Tanya Dimas.  After attending various networking functions all over Johannebsurg they found the need existed for something similiar in the South of JHB and so woman at work was born….

Toni & Tanya, thank you for a wonderful event, as always, and we look forward to your next networking event at Thaba Ya Batswana with Jess Ford as your guest speaker!

Riani

Function Photography

Woman at work started off with a bang this year!  Seeing that it is the month of Valentine’s day it was themed for the love of…  Louise Diesel shared some of her wisdom about loving what you do and doing what you love.  Let’s start with the definition of love.  (Basically liking

someone / something without judgement including “the good” and “the bad”)  Let’s use loving a spouse as an example.  In the beginning you fall in love with the perfect man, everything about it is just so right.  This is infatuation.  After a while you start noticing that it isn’t exactly as perfect

as you thought but it is still good.  Adn this is real love, pain and pleasure.  There are lots of people who don’t love what they do because they are clinging to a fantasy that something else (anything else for that matter) will be much better than what they have right now. (infatuation with another occupation / job etc)  So instead at looking at all the negative things start asking different questions like how does this “negative aspect /

scenario” serve me in my life.  Start being grateful for the things that you have instead of sulking about the things you don’t have (or make a plan to acquire those skills / that job / or the life that you want) but stop feeling sorry for yourself.  The charity for this month was The Door of Hope

in Glenvista.  They literaly have a door in the wall where mom’s can leave their babies and they will be loved and placed into adpotive homes.  It
was really wonderful seeing so many new faces at this event, because every new cycle brings along change.  Ladies I have been to all past 12

events and after seeing everything that has happened so far and how much your initiative has grown, I can only wait in anticipation to see what the rest of this year has in store…

Riani

Looking back I realize how much I have grown since September 2008.  Spiritually, mentally and also businesswise.  There is nothing in this world that can make you learn faster than being thrown in the deep end   This is where the good gets left behind and the excellent survive.  Part of this growth process was egged on by attendning a monthly networking function namely woman at work.  A network for female business owners to market and expand their companies as well as support fellow (female) business owners.  Every single person has somehow enriched my life and for that I thank you!!!  This is why I can’t wait to go to the first woman at work networking function of 2010 where Louise Diesel will be the guest speaker.  Somewhere in my head I hear the song”… I got a feeling…”

Riani

Its unbelievable to think that Woman at Work has been going for a year!?  We’ve been there photographing these networking functions since they started in December 2008 and it’s truly amazing to have walked this road with Toni & Tanya and see their vision evolve and grow like it has.

The woman at work year-end function was held at the Glenvista Country Club and we had an absolute ball.  No microphone glitches, nothing (I know… unbelievable) The Glenvista Country Club offers an indoor & outdoor function area and they will help you arrange everything.  You can even get married there and have your wedding photos taken on their lovely green golf course…

The charity of choice for the evening is Carita’s Home situated in Brackendowns.  An extract from their website:”Yvonne Deetlefs saw an urgent need for a safe, secure and loving environment for abandoned and abused children. The result was the birth of Caritas Home, May 2001. There are anywhere from 14 to 24 children living at Caritas, all of whom have been placed with us through Social Workers and the Courts.  The outward appearance of our house gives the impression of an ordinary home in the area. This is so that the children can live as normal a life as possible and ensure a “Place of Safety” for the children” 

Yvonne and your team, thank you so so much for everything you do for all of these children.  I’m sure it means more to them than they will ever be able to express!

Edith Venter was the guest speaker for the evening.  Let me tell you she is one remarkable lady!  Even though people judge Edith (without really knowing her) she still addressed all the ladies with an opening about how important it is to never judge  any other person because you never know what they might be going through.  It takes so little effort to tell another woman her hair looks pretty, or you love her dress and I promise you by building up other people you will feel uplifted yourself. 

  Here is a little something Edith read to all of us:”

A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape, but …

A woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape.
   A strong woman isn’t afraid of anything, but …
A woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear.
   A strong woman won’t let anyone get the best of her, but …
A woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone.
   A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future, but …
A woman of strength realizes life’s mistakes can also be God’s blessings and capitalizes on them.
   A strong woman walks surefootedly, but …
A woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls.
   A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face, but …
A woman of strength wears grace.
   A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey, but …
A woman of strength has faith that in the journey she will become strong.”

And I truly found this inspirational.  Read these words again and just think about it for a while…  Edith Venter is a graceful lady, and even though she is standing on a podium she speaks to you like she is sitting across from you in your sitting room having a galss of wine or cup of tea.  She makes you feel like you’ve known each other for years and years. 

Truly a very different person to what the media portrays…

This is one year end function with great photos. Every woman at work networking get-together is such a great function because there is always constant laughter.  Basically ladies, business women, mothers and friends coming together to network and have a great time!

Riani

I photographed the last Woman@work event last week and it was great fun as usual. I just love attending these events – I get to network and socialise with amazing and dynamic women and learn from inspiring speakers. This month’s event was held at The Boma in Alberton and we watched a show called “Leaving Las Vegas” which was fantastic!

Good music, good dancing, good company….. everythng I love (not to mention the good wine too LOL) But what I really love about these events, is that I get to spend time with my friends.Toni and Tanya, the powerhouses behind Woman@Work, have been friends of mine for almost 20 years now!

And like me, they are wives, mothers and businesswomen so it’s not surprising that we don’t get to see as much of each other as we’d like…. so at least we have one fixed date every month that we get to spend quality time together – no husbands, no families, no children – just a group of incredible women! It’s time that I treasure and I am grateful to my beautiful friends for making it happen.

Woman@Work is a wonderful way to bond with your friends, make new friends, network with other business owners, learn from other people and have fun!Hope to see you there….. Louise

The thing that I like most about Thaba Ya Batswana (which is a wedding venue and conference centre) is that it’s close by but you feel like you are in the bush. It’s like a little bit if the bushveld in the heart of JHB As you already know Thaba Ya Batswana’s Kraal Kombuis has been one of woman at work’s venues but we just couldn’t resist going back there (seeing that we had such a lovely time there last time…nudge…nudge…wink…wink) We had a great turn-out of roundabout 100-110 ladies who wanted to network and promote their business. Every woman got a nice floral necklace just to get us into the mood of Spring. I don’t know about you but I am ecstatic that winter is over Every woman at work event (and I’ve been to every single one) is without exception better than the last. I think this is because there is always such a dynamic group of women attending and this just makes the event a wonderful success! For attending this month’s woman at work networking event in the south of JHB you even got the opportunity to appear on TV… Vasi is busy shooting a movie about women empowerment and had all the ladies doing funny moves like “hanging the washing” and “washing the clothes” while repeating the slogan “WOMAN AT WORK…BREAK THE SILENCE…” laughed so much that our stomach muscles eventually hurt:-) Robyn introduced to us to her new revolutional water product which is called Soul Sole (pronounced soul so-lay) This water has gone through a process which has added electrolytes which basically makes this water a natural energiser. To give you an example normal REHIDRAT contains 11 electrolytes and soul sole has 83 electrolyes. AMAZING!!! It took Robyn and her partner 7 years to get their water medical aid approved. Then we also had Alison come and talk to us about putting the spring back in your step. As women we are always trying to get our families to eat healthily but I think we sometimes lose focus when doing it for ourselves. I’m not saying you need to diet just to eat bigger portions of healthy foods and veg. Making time for yourself every day is vitally important. When last did you do something completely for yourself. Just had some you-time? Exactly my point. Recharging the batteries of your soul is just as important as taking care of your family. Just like a bird can’t fly without one wing, you can’t help others if you don’t help yourself. So even if you only take 10 minutes out of your day, make time for YOU and what you want. Then we also heard the exciting news that woman at work is branching out to the East of Johannesburg. Wandy and Debbie will be running and overseeing this section. Isn’t it wonderful? Likeminded businesswomen understand each other and that is why we need to stand together and support women. By doing this we are not only empowering ourselves but also empowering other like-minded women. PS-Ican’t believe we didn’t have any microphone malfunctions and that we managed to finish on time!! Well done Toni & Tanya
Riani