Khabonina Qubeka

"I am everything that my heart desires to be. I am a woman, an artist, a lover of life and most importantly, a woman living a purposeful life. I am thankful for the gift of life and the chance to do what I love"

"From an early age, I learnt to have courage after seeing my community protesting and fighting against apartheid."

"Today, I am a fearless and driven artist because I was always surrounded by like-minded people"

"I love that I draw my strength from the strong women who fought against oppression and marched in 1956"

"I love that I am liberated and have the freedom to be a phenomenal woman because of the strides they took"

"I embrace my emotions, weaknesses and strengths. I love being a woman"

"I have a mother who is very passionate about the arts and she has always been very supportive of my craft. I believe parents should support their children but the most important thing is that as a child you need to work at making your parents understand your craft. Convince them that this is not just entertainment, but is like any other career. Your parents will take it seriously if they see you take it seriously"

"I realised that children nowadays don’t read because they enjoy it, they read because their teachers or parents tell them to. I want to change that. Through reading, the children are stimulated and their minds are broadened because reading inspires you and takes you places"

"With the book club, I wanted children to be inspired more because children are reserved and they cannot express themselves. That is why you find children being abused, but they don’t tell anyone about it because they cannot express themselves"

"I want to see more children, not only reading books, but being able to turn the books into plays and writing their own books because I think children would enjoy reading books that are written by their own peers"