25 Mar 2019

The empowerment of women is vital in nation building, says Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Moiseraele Goya.    

    He noted that women were natural bearers in any society and that in order for a nation to prosper and have good leaders, women must be empowered.

Mr Goya said this when giving a keynote address at the Women’s Finance House Botswana (WFHB) wellness day at the Palapye Community Hall. The day was held under the theme: Thusang basadi for your wealth and health - Kitso ke maatla.

Mr Goya said women had to be empowered and engaged in financial literacy, noting that they needed to be sensitised on how to start and run businesses in order to be able to sustain their lives and families.

Mr Goya, who is also Palapye MP, called on women to take care of their health, saying an unhealthy person could not effectively run a business or take care of the family.

He commended WFHB for holding the wellness day to sensitise women about health and wellness issues as well as financial literacy. Mr Goya further commended the organisation for providing financial assistance to businesses run by women.

For her part, the chairperson of WFHB, Ms Emeldah Mathe said the organisation started in 1989 after benchmarking from Women’s Finance House (WFH) in Mexico.

She said it came about after Emang Basadi was invited to attend the WFH meeting.  She said they were inspired to establish WFHB to empower women on health and financial issues. She said the organisation gave out loans to businesses run by women. She, however, said in order to benefit, one had to register with the organisation. 

She said the organisation had grown tremendously over the years, as in 1993 it had 12 000 members and the number was growing.

She said it has so far raised close to P18 million which would be used to finance other businesses run by women.

For his part, Mr Onthusitse Mmube from the Palapye District Health Management Team, encouraged women to take good care of their health if they intended to prosper. He said people could  be productive only if their health was good and sound. 

Mr Kealeboga Lekgatlhane from Solution Activity For Emergency Reaction (SAVER) also shared the same views with Mr Mmube. He engaged attendants on how to protect themselves in case of emergency or being attacked.

He took them through some basic martial arts routines and advised them to practice for 10 minutes every day, as the move would also help them to stay fit.

Kgosi Masego Olebile thanked WFHB for holding the event in Palapye to empower women. He also requested government to increase the number of people engaged in Ipelegeng. ENDS