23 Jun 2014

Women continue to be the pillar of all development and remain critical and central to development, says the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Ikwatlhaeng Bagopi.

Briefing the media on the 15^th women’s exposition scheduled for June 23-28 in Gaborone, Mr Bagopi said women were central to development as they start at an early age to nurture and mould children into responsible citizens. Mr Bagopi noted that when women succeeded in all life endeavours, the family flourished and young ones are assured of good upbringing and education. This year’s theme is “Women’s economic empowerment, a country is assured of prosperity and success for all.”

Mr Bagopi noted women remained critical to the building of a nation as they bore the duty of child upbringing including ensuring that such children were well nourished. Supporting women, he said remained central to the development of the country, adding that the government continued to raise the bar in the economic empowerment of women and have increased enrolment from 300 to 350 women entrepreneurs.

This, he said was an effort to meet the increasing demand for participation, adding they were more cognizant of the fact that more women entrepreneurs would like to participate but could only take a limited number. The exposition will start with the business forum on June 24, where women entrepreneurs will be equipped with business management skills as well as life skills as a holistic approach for sustaining their livelihood.

Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu will officially open the event on June 26 and gates will be open to the public on June 27. Orange corporate affairs director, Ms Lepata Mafa said partnership with Gender Affairs department was not a coincidence, adding that the strategy through Orange foundation was to support and empower those members of society who might be excluded due to gender, health, education, economic factors or disability.

Women and girls, she said was one such group that they had focused on over the years, because of various challenges that they faced in life. Ms Mafa noted they also recognized that women had immense talent and skills, and with the right support this could be harnessed to literally change their lives and economic circumstances.

She quoted Koffi Annan saying that, “when women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations were given a better start in life.” Orange, she said had an annual call for Christmas which started in 2012, noting it was an initiative where corporate Christmas gifts were purchased from women led businesses on an annual basis.

The initiative of supporting women runs through the whole Orange Group, adding that at group level they have an award called “women for change award,” that recognizes humanitarian projects led by women, in areas of entrepreneurship, education, healthcare and legal rights, she said. Ms Mafa said for this award, Orange foundation partnered with Women’s forum for the economy and society as well as Marie-Claire Magazine. ENDS