24 Feb 2015

Francistown Mayor, councillor Sylvia Muzila has urged religious associations such as the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) to engage in meaningful activities that could unite the nation. 

Speaking at the YWCA open day on Saturday, February 20 cllr Muzila said associations should not only concentrate on projects that needed finances but should also be proactive in voicing their stance on issues that have major impact on the society. 

She said religious associations needed to voice their views on issues such as the legalisation of abortion, prostitution and same marriages.

Ms Muzila said YWCA should play an active role in building families and marriage counseling in order to ensure the unity of the nation. “YWCA should contribute in nation building by addressing issues of marital disintegration, counselling of couples and promoting peace in the families,” she said.

YWCA North East Regional chairperson, Ms Ludo Mosojane said the association should be a platform to promote the network with the government on how women could be developed.

Ms Mosojane said there was need for women to unite in advocating to up-root social ills such as defilement, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and others.

She explained that the objective of the open day was to introduce YWCA to the Francistown community with the view of recruiting more members into the work of volunteerism and self reliance that the association promotes. 

YWCA president, Ms Tshoganetso Paphane urged the members to help make their association to remain relevant in the changing global village. 

Ms Paphane said in Botswana YWCA was started in 1962 with the aim of empowering women and the youth on human development issues nationwide. 

As a way of trying to remain relevant, YWCA focused not only on women but youth of all genders hence introduction of the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) in 2012.

She said the association advocated for policy changes and reforms on various issues affecting the youth.

She noted that since the government was trying to centralise the development of the youth through programmes such as the Youth Development Fund and the Young Farmers Fund, YWCA played its part by offering entrepreneurial skills.

A member of the YMCA, Mr Koziba Sebina said the youth were faced with a lot of challenges some of which include been neglected by parents. 

He said with the current busy lifestyles by some parents, some youth felt left out and lacked mentorship on a number of issues, a thing that he said led to some of them resorting to Facebook, sexual relationships and other bad behaviours as ways of passing time. ENDS