08 Sep 2020

 A young Motswana, Ms Thatayaone Temane, has joined the fight against child abuse. 

The 18-year-old Maun Senior Secondary School pupil has embarked on an initiative called; Femme Ardor, which addressed issues affecting young girls such as gender-based violence, rape and defilement. 

In an interview recently, Thatayaone said there were increasing number of social ills affecting the girl child during lockdown. 

She said since establishment of the initiative, she managed to donate sanitary pads and toiletry worth P10 000 to different schools and organisations such as Women Against Rape(WAR), Bana Ba Letsatsi and Love Botswana in Maun to support the girl child. 

“Some of the young girls are affected by poverty because their parents cannot support them as such they end up falling victim of gender based violence and defilement. Through this initiative, I wanted to give hope to the girl child so that they can be able to deal with the challenges,” she said. 

Thatayaone also explained that she faced a lot of challenges since establishment of her initiative, saying some people did not take her seriously because of her young age and lack of support from some institutions. 

“I would like government and different organisations to support this initiative as it is aimed at supporting those who will be leaders of tomorrow,” she said. 

Thatayaone said her dream was to start an organisation, which will be a safe home for girl children, providing them with basic needs such as shelter, food and clothing. 

“I would like to encourage girls to speak out in reporting issues of abuse so that they can be assisted and I would also like to encourage elders to respect children as children look up to them,” she said. Ends