Members, families and volunteers of I AM A QUEEN gathered together outdoors

Our programmes

Four programmes. One continuous relationship.

Each one meets a young woman at a different point in her year — and every one of them is free, for every young woman, always.

How they fit together

Not four offerings. One pathway.

Most organisations run programmes in parallel and hope a young woman finds the right one. We designed ours as a sequence a girl can enter at any point and stay inside for years.

She arrives

The Giving Hand

Most members first meet us at an outreach in their own community — not as a beneficiary, but as someone invited into what comes next.

She commits

Crowned Sessions

Online sessions give her a low-barrier way to start: no travel, no cost, no need to explain herself to anyone at home.

She belongs

Queen Circles

A small group and a named mentor she keeps for at least a year, online every Sunday. This is where the actual change happens.

She leads

The Queen Leadership Camp

The residential retreat where she is trained to hold the room herself — and where many members decide to become mentors.

A young woman speaking with a microphone to a room of listeners Programme 01

Residential · Annual

The Queen Leadership Camp

A residential retreat built around teaching, reflection and sisterhood — several days away from every voice that has been telling her who she is.

Distance does something a weekly session cannot. Away from home, school and phone, a young woman can ask questions she would never ask in front of people who think they already know her. The camp is structured to make those questions safe, and then to send her home with something concrete: a plan, a peer group and a mentor who is expecting her on Sunday.

What she works through

  • Identity and self-worth — separating what she has been told from what is true
  • Leadership in practice — running a session, chairing a discussion, handling disagreement
  • Boundaries, relationships and personal safety
  • Money, study and work — the practical mechanics of an independent life
  • A written plan for her next twelve months, reviewed in her Circle
Format
Residential retreat
Ages
13–26
Cost to her
Free — travel included
Under 18
Guardian consent and a signed indemnity form
Sponsoring a place
Costing on request
Community members, families and volunteers gathered at a Giving Hand outreach Programme 02

Community outreach · Ongoing

The Giving Hand

Our charity work: sanitary products, school supplies and essential resources delivered directly to young women and families in under-resourced communities.

Period poverty is not an abstract policy issue. It is a girl who misses four or five days of school every month, falls behind, and eventually stops going. A term's supply of sanitary products is among the cheapest things anyone can fund, and it changes her attendance immediately.

The matric farewell is the other night that decides whether a girl feels she belongs. Many of our members reach their final year together, and the cost of a dress, shoes, hair and a lift is enough to keep some of them home while their classmates go. We treat it as we treat a dignity pack: a practical thing, given quietly, so that she is in the room.

We run outreaches with local partners — schools, clinics and community organisations — who help us identify need accurately and, more importantly, help us come back. An outreach that happens once is an event. An outreach that happens four times is a relationship.

What we deliver

  • Dignity packs: sanitary products for a full school term
  • School supplies, stationery and uniform essentials
  • Food and household support for families in acute need
  • Matric farewell support — the dress, shoes, hair and transport for a member in her final year
  • An open invitation into Crowned Sessions and Queen Circles

How we hand things over

Person to person, without queues, without a stage and without asking anyone to explain their circumstances to a stranger. Nobody is photographed receiving anything unless they have asked to be.

Format
In-community outreach
Delivered by
Members and mentors from the area
Funding a dignity pack
Costing on request
Funding a full outreach
Costing on request
A young woman working carefully at a desk with a ruler and notebook Programme 03

Online · Monthly

Crowned Sessions

Online sessions on identity, purpose and values — the lowest-barrier way into this organisation, and the one that reaches furthest.

Geography decides far too much in South Africa. A young woman in a rural district can be an hour and a taxi fare away from anything that would develop her. Crowned Sessions remove that: she needs a phone and enough data for an hour, and we cover the data for members who need it.

Sessions are taught by our own facilitators and by guests we invite — women working in medicine, law, trades, business and the arts, talking honestly about how they actually got there rather than delivering a motivational speech.

Recurring themes

  • Identity — who she is when nobody is defining her
  • Purpose — finding work and study that fit the person she actually is
  • Values and decision-making under pressure
  • Confidence, communication and self-advocacy
  • Mental health, and knowing when to ask for help
Format
Online, live
Frequency
Monthly
Reach
Anywhere in South Africa
Cost to her
Free — data support available
Members of I AM A QUEEN gathered together outdoors Programme 04

Online · Every Sunday, 17:00

Queen Circles

Small, consistent groups with a named mentor, online every Sunday at 17:00: guided discussion, guest speakers and career guidance from someone who keeps showing up.

This is the centre of gravity of the whole organisation. Camps and monthly sessions can move a young woman; a Circle is what holds her. Groups stay small deliberately, so that an absence is noticed and a change in someone's mood is not missed.

Weekly matters more here than anything else in the design. A month is long enough for a hard week to pass unnoticed; seven days is not. Because Circles run online, a young woman does not need transport, a venue or anyone's permission to be there — only an hour on a Sunday evening.

Mentors commit for a full year. We ask for that because the thing we are actually offering is not advice — it is the experience of being consistently known by an adult who has no obligation to care and does anyway.

What happens in a Circle

  • Guided discussion on what she is actually facing this week
  • Reflection and goal-setting, reviewed together over time
  • Guest speakers from careers our members are curious about
  • Career and study guidance — applications, bursaries, CVs, interviews
  • A route into facilitating and mentoring for members who want it
Format
Small group, online
When
Every Sunday, 17:00 SAST
Length
About an hour
Mentor commitment
Minimum one year
Cost to her
Free — data support available

Joining

Who this is for, and how to start

Any young woman aged 13–26

There is no application to pass, no fee, no minimum marks and no requirement to belong to anything else. If you are within the age range and in South Africa, there is a place for you.

Start wherever is easiest

Most young women begin with a Crowned Session because it costs nothing but an hour. Others come through an outreach in their community. Both routes lead to the same place.

Bring someone with you

Many of our members joined because a friend, sister or cousin brought them. If it is easier to walk in with someone, bring her.

Common questions

Before you join

Do the programmes cost anything?
No. Every programme is free to every young woman, and that will not change. Where cost is a barrier to attending — travel to a camp, data for an online session — we cover it. You will never be asked for money, and you will never be asked to raise any.
Do I have to join all four programmes?
No. Many members only ever attend Crowned Sessions, and that is a complete way to be part of this. The four programmes are designed to connect, not to obligate.
Is this a religious organisation?
Our work is about identity, confidence, leadership and practical community support. Young women of any faith or none are equally welcome, and no part of any programme requires you to hold a particular belief.
I am outside the areas where you have run outreaches. Can I still join?
Yes. Both Crowned Sessions and Queen Circles run online, so where you live makes no difference to either of them — a Circle meets every Sunday at 17:00 and you need nothing but a phone and an hour. Of the four programmes, only the Leadership Camp and Giving Hand outreaches happen in person, and we cover travel to camp.
What does my family need to agree to?
If you are under 18, we ask for a parent or guardian's consent before you attend anything in person, and we will speak to them directly if that helps. For anything that involves travel — the Leadership Camp, or an outreach away from home — a parent or guardian also signs an indemnity form before you go. Online sessions require no travel and we are happy for a parent to sit in on the first one.
What is expected of me once I join?
That you turn up when you say you will, and that you tell your mentor when you cannot. That is genuinely the whole list. Nobody is removed for missing sessions during a hard month.