08 Dec 2015

The United States Peace Corp volunteer, Ms Keeshma Richardson, has pleadged to enlighten Paje residents on different  types of abuse. 

Ms Richardson said she had realised that some people were not aware of the forms of abuse.  She said in an interview that most of the people only knew physical abuse, but there were other forms of abuse.  

Therefore, she put a line up of activities to commemorate 16 days of activism against gender based violence.  She said 16 days of activism against gender-based violence was a global initiative that intended to raise awareness on issues of abuse. 

The peace corp stated that amongst the activities was a movie night, which was expected to raise issues of HIV/AIDS and its relationship to gender based violence. She added that the movie was targeting an audience of people aged 14-30 years.  She said it was almost impossible to leave out issues of HIV/AIDS, adding that they would use the platform to raise such issues.

Soccer tournament was yet another activity that they intended to use in order to reach out to people. 

Ms Richardson stated that soccer in its nature attracted men and families at large. “Kick out gender based violence’ would be the     theme of the tournament,” she said. 

She said they would also share information on safe male circumcision and also distribute condoms. 

Ms Richardson stated that they were not working solely as the US Peace Corps, but were working with the Village Development Committee. The committee, she said, helped with a lot with the logistics.

They helped with raising awareness on the campaign activities, she said. 

    She noted that the department of gender affairs in Serowe had contributed greatly in monetary terms, adding that the department had also provided guidance and counselling towards the activities of 16 days of activism against gender based violence.   

The District AIDS coordinator’s office in Serowe and the peace corps, Vast Grant also donated monetary support.   

Other donations towards the campaign activities as revealed by the peace corp were received from Khama Rhino Sanctuary Trust, Paje Performing Arts Remedy, Serowe Pharmacy and Jigabytes Internet Café. 

   Ms Richardson stated that the 16 day activism against gender based violence kick started with a lineup of events on November 25 and would end up with prize giving ceremony billed for Paje kgotla on December 10. Ends