loader image

Where our journey started

Khwela means “to climb” in isiXhosa, one of the wider spoken languages of South Africa, and the mother tongue of one of Khwela’s co-founders, Asanda Daraza. What started off as a brainstorming session on a couch in Cape Town in 2017, soon became a reality when Khwela won an international competition with Booking.com to run a pilot project. The idea? That travel is truly transformative, and that through travel and reflective practice women from under-resourced communities in Cape Town could shift their world view, embrace a growth mindset and learn from experience and skills training how to work in the tourism industry. In the first two years, 80% of the Khwela participants on average went from being unemployed to finding work in the tourism industry.

Enter: COVID-19.

As the pandemic shook the globe, the travel industry fell to its knees as people stopped travelling. Khwela took a pause, as we considered how we could continue to self-empower women in a time where physical travel and learning was not allowed. Through this time, Khwela Womxn was born. Experiential learning and the power of sisterhood remained key to our purpose: that we believe womxn have the power to change communities, but we had to re-design the program for a low-touch, high impact, post-COVID-19 world.

WE BELIEVE THAT SELF-EMPOWERED WOMXN ARE THE CHANGE AGENTS FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES

We leverages technology to equip womxn with opportunities for experiential learning and increased access to safe peer-mentorship spaces, so that they can transform their mindsets and uplift themselves personally and professionally.

OUR MISSION

We help womxn by equipping them with opportunities for experiential learning and increased access to safe peer-mentorship spaces, so that they can transform their mindsets and uplift themselves personally and professionally.

OUR VISION

Our vision is to connect a virtual community of 100 000 self-empowered womxn who are able to further inspire others in their community through access to experiential learning, credible education as well as peer-mentorship.

OUR VALUES

Experiential Learning towards Personal Growth

Embrace the Hustle. Embrace Collaboration

Show Up and Be Brave

Back Yourself, but NO Bullshit

THE TEAM

Kim Whitaker
Co-founder
Asanda Daraza
Co-founder
Angela Sharp
Product Manager
Grizelda la Cock
Operations Manager