Shanitah Namuyimbwa, popularly known as Bad Black, became emotional as she officially launched her new women-focused initiative, Beauty Beyond The Scars, during a press conference at Skyz Hotel Naguru.
The Ugandan socialite and mother of four used the launch to call on women carrying difficult burdens to attend the first edition of the project, saying food and drinks will be provided free of charge throughout the event.
But the initiative goes beyond bringing women together.
Bad Black said she has reached out to different organisations in an effort to secure scholarships and skills-training opportunities for women involved in the programme. The goal, she explained, is to help participants become self-reliant and rebuild their lives.
“Come as you are. Eats and drinks will be available and free of charge. I have tried to secure scholarships from organisations that have skills and many other things. I do all this for women under this programme, Beauty Beyond The Scars.”
She said the project is particularly aimed at women who feel they have little or no voice, including those facing domestic violence, oppression and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images following relationships or sexual encounters.
“I want to help women out there with little or less hope, the voiceless, the oppressed, those who get their nudes leaked and those facing domestic violence.”
The Beauty Beyond The Scars initiative is built around empowerment, confidence and hope, with the broader message that difficult experiences do not have to define the rest of a woman’s life.
For Bad Black, the project also marks a different side of her public identity. Rather than focusing on the controversies that have frequently accompanied her celebrity profile, she is now placing women’s empowerment, community support and advocacy at the centre of a new initiative.
Her emotional moment at the launch underscored the personal weight she appears to attach to the project, even as the first edition gets underway.
Whether Beauty Beyond The Scars grows into the long-term platform Bad Black envisions will depend on how the initiative develops beyond its launch. For now, she is putting her name behind a programme designed to remind women that their hardest chapter does not have to be their final one.