Dr Zainab Kader is one of 100 City employees who were awarded City awards for completing their studies in the 20/21 academic year. The ceremony was hosted by the City’s Training and Development Department on 3 June 2022 while the virtual ceremony took place on 10 June 2022.
Zainab Kader, 31, works as a Trauma Counsellor for City staff in the Community Services and Health Directorate. Kader, who lives in Parklands, completed her PhD in December 2020. Her PhD topic was, ‘An intervention to reduce adolescent hookah pipe use and satisfy their basic psychological needs.’
Zainab says that she chose her topic when she realised that many children were smoking hookah pipes and families were not seeing the harm. Hookah pipe can be a gateway substance. Literature on hookah pipe interventions is scarce and to her knowledge, her study is the only intervention designed for adolescent hookah pipe use in South Africa and potentially Africa.
Zainab’s work at the City entails:
• Providing counselling and debriefing to staff who have experienced work-related trauma
• Training staff who have a passion for helping others to become psychological first aiders
• Offering trauma related training
• Designing and compiling the Care-4-U newsletter, which focuses on mental health and occupational health and safety
• Offering support and guidance to managers and staff affected by trauma.
‘Zainab is the only staff member who graduated with a doctorate degree in the 2020 academic year. Her achievement is such an extraordinary milestone, an inspiration and encouragement to her colleagues, family and friends. Having such an ambitious young woman as part of our staff complement is an honour. The City is happy to have her on board. She epitomises that one can achieve anything that one sets one’s mind on. As we celebrate Youth Month, our young people can most certainly take a leaf out of her book,’ said the Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Theresa Uys.
Zainab said: ‘I love empowering people and interacting with them. It is always rewarding to see people grow from their circumstance and learn insight and new ways to cope. I feel proud that I have achieved this degree as only 2% of the world’s population has this degree, but I am also glad that I could make my family and friends proud. Most importantly, it warms my heart when others are encouraged to study because they see what I have achieved. I also feel grateful that I could advance my studies to the point where I can be a benefit to humanity.’
‘We salute you Zainab, reach for the stars. Thank you for the expertise that you bring to the City, to make progress possible,’ said Alderman Uys.
Source: City Of Cape Town