Wista mentorship candidate heads for Hamburg

TERRY HUTSON FOLLOWING LAST year’s successful six month mentorship programme in which two candidates received skills transfer and development training locally and overseas, another candidate has been selected for the WISTA (Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association) 2005 mentorship project. She is Kumeshnee Pillay from Megafreight Services in Durban, a runner-up in 2004 who says she is looking forward to being exposed to a wider spectrum of the shipping industry. Her first month will be spent under the wing of local mentors and should provide an overview of various aspects of the shipping industry’s supply chain. In mid-September she attends the WISTA International Conference in Hamburg, after which she will complete the month in various offices in the German port city under the guidance of WISTA Germany president Erika Brambow. This will be followed by further mentorship in the Netherlands and Norway before returning home in November. Shamina Krishnaswamy, project coordinator for WISTA South Africa, said the project was one of a kind and a flagship for the organisation. “Other countries have shown keen interest in forming an international mentorship committee that will see mentors from all over the world being exposed to the South African shipping industry. We are very confident that through continuous fundraising we can make this mentorship programme an annual event.”