This Women’s Month, AWARE.org is launching She Carries It Forward, a national storytelling campaign celebrating the women whose everyday conversations shape healthier choices in families, schools and communities across South Africa. Through a series of documentary-style interviews and portraits, the campaign shines a light on the mentors, mothers, teachers, nurses, grandmothers and community leaders whose influence is often felt long after the conversation ends.
For AWARE.org, the campaign is about far more than celebrating Women’s Month.
“Campaigns can start conversations, but they don’t change behaviour on their own. People do,” says Mokebe Thulo, CEO of AWARE.org. “Real change happens when trusted people continue those conversations long after a campaign has ended. Women are often those trusted voices within families and communities. Whether as mothers, daughters, sisters, healthcare workers, educators, colleagues or friends, they influence decisions every day through conversations, encouragement and positive role modelling. She Carries It Forward celebrates that influence while encouraging all South Africans to help build healthier communities together.”
She Carries It Forward is inspired by a simple but powerful truth: women are often among the most trusted sources of guidance and influence within families and communities. Through everyday conversations, encouragement and positive role modelling, they help shape healthier choices across generations.
This understanding is reflected in AWARE.org’s 2026 Sober Pregnancies Research, conducted with Frontline Research Group. The nationally representative study found that more than half of respondents turn to a mother or older female relative for advice during pregnancy, rising to 61% among women, compared with just 27% who identified a nurse or doctor as their most trusted source. The findings reinforce the significant role trusted women play in influencing decisions and highlight why ensuring that this guidance is informed and accurate, particularly on issues such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), is essential to creating lasting behaviour change.
Every day, these conversations happen in classrooms, clinics, kitchens, workplaces and around family tables. They are the teacher challenging harmful social norms, the nurse reassuring an expectant mother that no amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy, the grandmother reminding her family that celebrations do not always need to revolve around alcohol, or the friend who quietly offers to drive everyone home. These moments may never make headlines, but they shape healthier choices every day.
More than a documentary series, She Carries It Forward is an invitation for South Africans to recognise the women whose influence has shaped their own lives and inspired healthier choices. At the heart of the campaign is one simple question:
Who carried it forward for you? Join Her.
Throughout Women’s Month, South Africans are encouraged to watch the stories on AWARE.org’s YouTube channel to learn more. They can also join the conversation by sharing, engaging with, and amplifying the campaign across AWARE.org’s social media platforms, helping to carry these conversations forward in their own communities.
This philosophy underpins all of AWARE.org’s work. Whether supporting parents to prevent underage drinking through #NOtoU18, encouraging alcohol-free pregnancies through its Sober Pregnancies programme, or promoting responsible choices on South Africa’s roads through its Road Safety programme, AWARE.org believes healthier communities are built through trusted relationships, positive role modelling and conversations that continue long after a campaign has ended.
“The phrase She Carries It Forward reminds me of my late mother,” says Lorato Molepo, #NOtoU18 Programme Educator at Kibler Park Secondary School.
“Growing up, I watched my mother surrounded by learners, always teaching. Through my mother, I learnt that every child deserves to be heard and that we all have a responsibility to pass on the lessons, values and dignity that others have shared with us.”
Grade 12 learner Tinyiko Matlala says the campaign reminded her of the lasting influence her mother has had on her life.
“Because of my mother, I want to be that person in someone else’s life, just as she has been for me. She Carries It Forward reminds us that our background does not define our future. Like the strong women who came before us, we can all inspire someone else.”
These stories form the heart of She Carries It Forward, demonstrating that meaningful behaviour change is created not only through campaigns, but through the trusted relationships and everyday conversations that continue long after the cameras stop rolling.
