09 Aug 2018

Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe, has commended Mercy Hands Foundation Trust (MHFT) on its mission to assist government in improving the lives of underprivileged people around the country. She was speaking at the handover ceremony of spectacles, sanitary pads and stationery by the MHFT to Lesedi Primary School on Thursday. 

The charitable event was held under the theme; Joining hands to help the affected (eye is the lamp of the body). Ms Kokorwe said the gesture demonstrated by the Trust was promoted in the country’s National Vision 2036 Pillar 2, which talked about Human and Social Development, particularly the sub headings on Education and Skills Development and Children’s Wellbeing. 

She said it was also significant to donate sanitary pads especially since Parliament adopted an urgent Motion in 2017, which called on government to consider providing sanitary pads to eligible school girls in Botswana as a matter of urgency, and hopes the motion would be implemented soon. 

Ms Kokorwe further called upon the citizens to join hands in uplifting and restoring dignity to the lives of the underprivileged and also advised the recipients of the donations to utilise what they had been given to shine in their educational paths. 

Director of Mercy Hands Foundation Trust, Mr Kabelo Rampe, said MHFT was a charitable organization mandated to help unfortunate members of communities. He said the organization provided charity and voluntary work around the country, and was driven by passion and humanity. 

He revealed that among the donations, 11 spectacles were donated to children while adults were given 42. 

The Trust further handed 50 mathematical sets and stationery to standard seven pupils and three boxes of sanitary pads. 

For his part, Lesedi Primary School head, Mr Kuda Letsholo expressed gratitude to Mercy Hands Foundation for their humanitarian gesture to his school, saying the deed will go down the history books of the school since its inception. 

He pleaded with government departments and different entities to come on board and assist his school, citing dilapidation and lack of classrooms among many of the challenges the school faced on a daily basis. 

Meanwhile, Ms Kokorwe observed a moment of silence in memory of  women and children who fell at the hands of peepetrators. 

She called on parents to counsel their children and urge them to seek help when they had problems in their relationships to avoid passion killings. BOPA