15 Aug 2019

Chairperson of Dingwetsi Association, Ms Grace Silver has urged the Kgalagadi North leadership to drill their communities on the importance of family.

Addressing community leaders at Matsheng recently, Ms Silver said given the challenges faced by society, their organisation saw it fit to hold workshops across the country to teach the public about building healthy and stable marriages.

She said high divorce rates, alcohol and substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and poverty continued to be a thorn.

She said their motive was to restore the effectiveness of families in the building of a stable, upright and productive nation. Ms Silver added that their association intended to empower the nation through different platforms such as workshops, seminars and mass media communications.

Furthermore, she said they intend to bring an understanding on newlyweds on how they should build their families through pre-marital and post-marital counselling sessions.

“We intend to educate women and empower them on how best to avert poverty by starting small businesses.”

The chairperson said through their inductions they aspire to guide and teach the youth on the importance of family as well as engaging different community members by training them on how to take care of families.

She said they would partner with relevant stakeholders such as marriage counsellors, district commissioners, pastors, dikgosi and single parents as a way to help society nurture their families and marriages.

For her part, Ms Barolang Tumelo highlighted that God created marriage and family to give human beings the need to feel connected.

She said marriage was wonderful and difficult at the same time, and encouraged families to apply God’s word to their families to help bring happiness, love and support amongst them.

She also encouraged wives to be at the forefront in building families, adding that it would help to build stable families and to raise positive and vibrant human beings.

The chair said it was vital for married people to ensure that they compromised at all times to maintain peace and stability in their marriage.

Another speaker, Ms Mmaserame Motshabesi called for cordial relationships between daughter in laws and in-laws and to avoid animosity between the two parties.  

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Merapelo Tshweneyagae said the discontinuation of initiation schools was a blunder, adding that they helped in building well-rounded males and females who were able to build stable families.

He lauded the association for its efforts in advocating for strong marriages, saying it would help to build an upright society.

Kgalagadi North  chief representative at Ntlo ya Dikgosi, Kgosi Moeti Monyamane encouraged the association to spread its wings across the country so that different communities could learn to build stable families.

He also urged them to involve unmarried people in order to equip them so that they could enter into marriages with adequate information and be able to sustain their marriages.

Kgosi Kebapatile Montshiwa of Lehututu encouraged the association to engage men and urged them as well to establish an association that could help them to deal with issues that affect them.

For her part, Kgosi Basadi Seipone of Kang encouraged women to be at the forefront since they were capable of changing the world and making it a better place for all.

She also called on dikgosi and district commissioners to join hands and address the ills be-devilling the marriage institution.

Kgosi Bojosi Motshoge of Tshane encouraged communities to observe taboos, saying they protected families from certain misfortunes.

   He said globalisation should not be used as an excuse to destroy the Setswana culture, and urged communities to ensure that they protected their cultures.

In her closing remarks, Hukuntsi deputy district commissioner, Ms Segomotso Nkwane said raising children in today’s world was challenging, and that shaping their character was even more urgent as children were confronted with values that seemed opposite from their parents values. She noted that the youth were bombard with mixed messages through the media, social networks.

Despite the challenges, she said parents were still the best protectors and that they should take an active role in raising their children to ensure that they grew into healthy and responsible adults. ENDS