13 May 2014

Founder of Voices of the Community, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Ms Keitumetse Motshidiemang has said it is important for couples and the society to learn about gender violence.



She was presenting an exercise dubbed In her Shoes to the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) personnel at their camp in Gumare recently.



Ms Motshidiemang, whose NGO is in partnership with Peace Corps, presented ascenarios of what women went through in life. 
 
In an interview, BDF's Captain Philip Mautlwane said the exercise helped them learn about issues of abuse and also showed empathy towards women.  



He said after the exercise, he realised that abused people sought help from different stakeholders  such as family, social workers and the police and  sometimes such help is not enough as some people do not take the cases seriously and it ends up frustrating the abused person. 



He encouraged all stakeholders to take note of gender violence and encouraged those who are going through abuse to seek for help from experts. 

Capt Mautlwane also stressed the importance of communication in families, saying it reduces cases of abuse.

One of the Peace Corps, Mr Jeff Lyle said that the exercise was to educate the soldiers about gender violence. 



Mr Lyle said he believes that if the whole community is made aware, the issues of gender abuse would be easily tackled and resolved.  Ends