My name is only Fredericks and I'm presenting to you from Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town, South Africa. And today I'm speaking to you on the issue of gender based violence under the topic, passion, humanity and collaboration.As you know, there are many, many different threats of violence against women and Children. But I choose to speak with you about gender-based violence in the public transport sector. But for first, I would like to share a poem with you, but I also would like to disclaim that the graphics and the audio in this poem might be might disturb some sensitive viewers. If you are a victim or survivor of sexual violence, please choose now to mute your microphone and close your video. The poem is two minutes and 15 seconds long. I will now begin.

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This film was performed by one of Lotta's very own staff members, Miss Chelsea Goliath who feels very, very passionate about the issue of gender-based violence. Now I'm not going to talk to you about the statistics in gender-based violence because I'm sure we all watch the media.

We all know somebody who knows somebody that has been violated. I am going to talk more about why this is important to you. Now in South Africa, the figures of violence against women with a particular emphasis on sexual violence and rape is escalating on a hor horrendous level on a daily level. And just to make a comparison to one of the safer countries in South Africa where there are so many rapes for every 100,000 women who are being violated, there is only 2.7 people to support them. Whilst in the Netherlands for every 100,000 women who are violated, there are 85 psychologists and support people. What is, what is wrong with this figure is that South Africa is revered to as the country with the with the most advanced constitution and yet and yet we don't see it on the ground. So there are many people that choose to talk about it. But the ladies on transport services, we decided that we will tackle it by empowering women and providing safety to women so that we can be on the forefront of tackling gender-based violence because it is clear that if women wants to tackle the issue of gender-based violence, it has to be led by ourselves with the support of feminist men.

This picture in front of you, it's a picture that cuts my heart deeply because this is a person Emma who came to us early on and she is a person of disabilities, hard of hearing. What was really challenging about this training was that none of us had prior training of teaching people with disabilities with hearing disabilities to drive. And I took it upon myself. And this is the result, this is what Anna looked like the day that she passed her driving license.

And you might want to wonder where is all this coming from? Simply because I was born and raised in a, in a home where domestic violence was at the order of the day where it was ok. It was normal for men to be their wives. And I saw very early on that men, other men wouldn't interfere because this was what it was supposed to be like. And I also experienced violence on three occasions in my life, I was brutally raped three times. The last occasion was 25 years ago on a public transport. And of course, these experiences are deep and you can choose to do two things. You can choose to go sit in your corner and, and cry for the rest of your life or you can choose to stand up and become the voice for those who are not yet powerful enough to speak for themselves. And this is why I started ladies own transport services and we are providing the highest of quality K 53 driving lessons. In South Africa. We are doing so well that the licensed tax tax incentives are sending learners to us because our quality training is so appreciated. Already in our first year of operation between 2019 and 2020 we we reported our 1st 50 driver graduates as well as our 1st 50 ladies with learner permits and more than anything.

I am super, super, super pleased to, to announce that already in that very first year out of our own learners, we managed to take our first qualified driving instructor over the finishing line. And this is in line with our motto of empowering women to be able to start businesses for them, for themselves if they choose to do so. And then obviously something that was always on my mind was just forced ahead in 2021 in January. When I heard that one of my close friends was nearly ring an Uber trans transport. And I realized that I cannot wait any longer for more resources, more cars, more, more money to provide the safe transport that I was so desperately wanting to provide. And so I chose to start with my two driving cars and I chose to start with the limited resources that we had and no cash in the bank to provide safe rights opportunities for women. I am still blown away today because of course, the issue of safety is on everybody's lips, everybody talks about it. And so I I didn't expect the overwhelming request from all over the country. In the 1st 100 days, we received more than 750 people and people said from from the other provinces in South Africa.

John, can we also start a AAA branch of ladies own transport services and the many many messages that came most importantly for from men to say jo well done. This is long, long overdue and thank you. Thank you for providing the opportunity for my daughters and my wife to be able to drive safely. Thank you for making me feel at ease. Today, we received more than 100 requests on a daily basis and we are not able to honor those requests because as yet, we have only two rights or vehicles, but we are very poss pessimistic optimistic about the future. We have many, many plans and every problem we turn around as an opportunity. And so one of the most exciting opportunities which we will realize is that we want to open our own auto mechanic shop. We the women, we want to be able to look after our own vehicles and we also want to provide services because in three years, I have gone through more than 10 mechanics. And sadly, the situation is such in South Africa that the moment a male mechanics see that the client is a woman business owner, suddenly the prices goes up and the quality goes down. It cannot be a coincidence, not with 10 different mechanics.

And so we want the insurance that we have trained women that can truly take care of the safety of our vehicles, which in terms relate to the safety of our clients and our drivers. And it will also speak to the type of operations that we will be able to provide because truth be told, one of the biggest challenges that we had is constantly breaking vehicle. We also plan to provide forklift driver training as well as truck driver training because suddenly women are excited through lots. They learn that there are many, many opportunities and that they too can become drivers. And uh what we are trying to do is to let people know that it is not shameful to be a driver. Previously, when people, when women had to make career choices, driver, an instructor was not part of their choices because it was made out to be a male dominated field. And at ladies and transport services, we are, we are super excited to say and are now applying in the droves to come and drive with us. The empowerment part of our work is, is really something that keeps me going for for days on end.

The picture in front of here is this lady here, Danny Paulson as is a, she is a manager at one of our um Spur branches in South Africa. And when she came to me early in 2018, she, she felt so disempowered because even though she was the manager of the store, she felt disrespected and Sophia Sophia, that people didn't value her, that her, her staff didn't value her. And, and that was only because c of all the staff did not have a driving license. And look, not only did she pass a learner's permit at, at, at, at lots, but she also went on to obtain a driving license and then, and then she came to show me jo look here, look at this, look what I bought myself. And so this is what makes our work worthwhile. Now, obviously, in order to be able to say to service our customers, we um employ a mixture of technologies. Now, in the modern days, people are um everybody is aiming to provide the app, the app, the app, but very early on, we realized that the type of clients that we service, they are not into the app.

These are people that still prefer to pick up the phone and send text messages and, and, and send whatsapp messages and go on Facebook and send messenger messages. And so we decided that the human touch is what make ladies own transport services successful in the services that we provide to our customers. We do have apps that assist our work. We've got an app called Taxi caller and that is just an enhancement to the safety of the driver and the the client because we monitor the trip life and the driver can report any issue if there should be one. And of course, a lot, we find that the trusted old spread cell system is still very, very much working here. And so in all of these different methods of dealing with our customers, we found that we found our needs with our mixture of personal cuts and technology, it might change in the future. But remember that we aim to service all types of women with or without disabilities from all races and from all income levels. And this is what we do in the business dealings that we have with other businesses. Obviously, we use the, the communication methods of choice.

And so far, we find that we are able to satisfy every communication need with every single one of our audiences. And of course, our biggest partner, in fact, one of our most important partners is the media who has ever always been there since inception of 2018. I'm just sharing you some with you, some of our friends. Um We've been reported on in the enc A uh news television station in South Africa, Evan NAA, which is a newspaper in Italy, the Netherlands Dach Blood in the Netherlands and lo and behold, even BBC interviewed us. And so please forgive me if I sound like I'm bragging a little bit, but it is nice to know that the global community also wants to know what we are up to here in South Africa and I wanna say thank you to our media partners, to our friends for carrying out our voice to the rest.

And obviously nobody can operate with our partnerships. Some of our good partners is autotrader save which provide a safe app. And of course, very very importantly and excitingly Virginia Tech University in the USA. The four cornerstones of our journey towards gender equitable urban transport into the future is empowerment through the provision of jobs and addressing social taboos and making sure that women are safe, making use of our services. And of course, do this through creating meaningful partnerships with like-minded people and institutions. And when something work, it must be expanded and we are already making plans to expand here in South Africa shortly to the rest of Africa. And yes, we will be seen in every corner of the world because we know that with just a few minor touches, our model can be expanded to the rest of the world. None of this is possible without an amazing support team. None of it is possible and so to my team here at lots. Thank you. Thank you so much for being there. 24 7. I just want to let you know that currently we are doing a crowdfund sourcing campaign and it is simply to be able to enhance our work. We need more vehicles to be able to provide services in the rideshare department.

We need at least two more driving car vehicles and obviously this car needs to be repaired and very important. We would like to start a scholarship fund because in our area, many, many women are unemployed. And so many of the requests are from women that say please help me to drive, but I don't have money to pay and we are inviting you to please get involved, get involved, learn about what we do. And let's start talking. I wanna thank you for your time and attention and I wanna apologize for the early hiccups that we had. And I really hope that my message has managed to kindle some interest in your heart. But now before I go, let me show you how we can work together to make all of these dreams become true. I have no clue whether there is a minute for a question. But right now I would like to ask you, do you have any questions for me? Is there anybody who would like to ask a question? I still have three minutes left. Is there anybody would like to ask me a question? Is it that, that I gave such a detailed presentation that it is clear or that it was so boring that you don't have anything to, to ask me about? You? Are Karina KK Kasa? You are curious to know how many times I failed.

Oh, too many times to mention. But the the success recipe is that I surround myself with an amazing team of supporters. From all over the world. People that, that are there to pick me up when I'm down. So yes, I failed many times. And it's only through learning that we have the pro product that we can proudly present to you. Ruly Megs. You want to know how much does a learner lesson cost at the moment? Only 180 rand. Because remember our client base is in the very poorest communities of, of Cape Town in South Africa. And so we want to make it as affordable as possible. And sometimes we even provide payment plans just to be able to help the woman get over the finishing line. Because remember our clients come to us for driving lessons because it can help them get a new job. It can help them get into the new new promotions and and some of our ladies even start their own businesses. This is the importance of a driver license any more questions. And I was told that the season here is very, very strict. I've got one minute here and I really, really don't know how I made it to having only one minute. But let me use this one minute to invite you. Please. Please, please please check us out on our website www dot Ladies own transport.co dot zod dot Z A. Yes, Ruly 8 180 rand is very achievable and so easy for someone to contribute.

And thank you very much for your for your compliment. We actually enjoy the hard work here because our work is driven by this person. Please join us on Facebook. Thank you, Karina for your kind words. It is only through the support of all my, my colleagues and friends. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Goodbye.