Shehana Kajee
A lifetime of community involvement. A network built for what comes next.
Founder of Women's Support Network and a long-standing advocate for women, community support and practical assistance for those facing difficult circumstances.
Service has been a constant throughout her life.
Shehana Kajee's involvement in public and community life stretches across several decades.
Growing up during apartheid and within a family involved in resisting it helped shape an early understanding of injustice, community responsibility and the importance of standing up for others.
Her political journey began within the African National Congress before she later joined the Democratic Alliance. Throughout that journey, women's issues, community support and advocacy have remained an important part of her work.
Her involvement has largely been voluntary. Rather than treating public service as a source of income, much of her work has been driven by a belief that communities become stronger when people are willing to give their time and experience to others.
Across those years, Shehana became known for being direct and outspoken when circumstances demanded it, while still approaching sensitive matters with diplomacy. That balance has been especially important when assisting women who may already feel unheard, overwhelmed or uncertain about whom they can trust.
Her work has not been limited to formal organisations or public campaigns. Much of it has happened quietly: listening to a person in distress, helping someone understand her options, connecting a family with useful support, or standing beside a woman while she takes the first difficult steps towards resolving a problem.
Teaching children with special needs
Before becoming a mother, Shehana's professional focus was teaching children with special needs — work centred on patience, communication and understanding individual circumstances.
A qualified mediator
Her mediation training supports a practical approach to difficult situations — listening carefully, understanding the problem and helping people identify a constructive way forward.
Women at the centre
Over the years, Shehana has privately assisted vulnerable women and victims who needed guidance, support, mediation or simply someone willing to listen.
Sometimes support begins with simply having somewhere to turn.
Women's Support Network was created around a straightforward idea: no woman should feel that she has to face a difficult situation entirely on her own.
Sometimes a woman needs information. Sometimes she needs legal or practical guidance. Sometimes she needs community backing, a mediator, someone who can help her understand the next step, or simply a friend willing to listen without judgement.
The Network aims to become a place where those forms of support can meet — while also celebrating women's achievements, preserving their stories and building stronger connections between women.
It is intended to serve women across different ages and circumstances, including young women, single mothers, working women, women experiencing abuse, women in disadvantaged communities and those who are vulnerable or isolated. The need may differ from one person to the next, but the starting point is the same: listening carefully and treating every woman with dignity.
Shehana believes that useful support must be practical as well as compassionate. Encouragement matters, but so does helping someone find accurate information, suitable professional assistance, community backing or a constructive path through conflict.
“You're not alone.”
A simple message, but one that defines what Women's Support Network is being built to represent.
Building something that can outlive its founder.
Shehana's long-term ambition is not to create an organisation that depends permanently on her.
The goal is to build Women's Support Network into something strong enough to eventually be handed to future leadership — allowing another generation to continue the work, develop it further and keep supporting women long into the future.
For Shehana, that means developing a culture rather than simply creating a platform: a culture in which experience is shared, women make room for one another, and service remains more important than recognition. Its success will ultimately be measured by whether women know that support exists and feel able to reach for it.