Ignatia Pastor, a 16-year-old learner from Protea Park in Atlantis, has recently been elected as a Junior City Councillor of the City of Cape Town.
Ignatia, a grade 11 learner at Proteus High School, said her love for the people of Atlantis as well as her drive to help build a prosperous future for everyone motivated her to accept the nomination for a Junior City Councillor.
The Junior City Council (JCC) is a leadership programme for Grade 10 and Grade 11 high school learners to develop key leadership skills, community project management skills, broaden their knowledge of local government in the context of Cape Town and cultivate a culture of active citizenry through ensuring they become ambassadors within their communities, said Councillor Donovan Nelson, JCC Coordinator.
Ignatia is a devoted Catholic and served as a lifeguard at the Atlantis swimming pool. She also serves her school community in various leadership roles and is the sitting RCL chairperson.
Over the next six months she will focus on her Junior City Council project that wants to alleviate period poverty. She is collecting sanitary pads for the indigent and designing a workshop for female leaners on the hygienic use of toilets in collaboration with national and international collaborators.
The young energetic junior councillor said: “My appointment happened in Women’s Month, a month when females have to reflect on how far we have come to be equal and how far we still have to go towards ultimate freedom.
“My Junior City Council Project aims to increase access to sanitary towels because I saw that many girls are not progressing because they have to worry about where they’ll find pads. I believe that if government can distribute free condoms, then they can distribute free sanitary pads to females in need.”
This Grade 11 learner intends to build a career as either a firefighter or a lawyer after Grade 12.
