06 Dec 2020

Gender based violence (GBV) activist, Ms Ndiyezwe Khupe, has motivated youth to normalise going to therapy as that may help them overcome a lot of situations in life. 

Giving a life experience with GBV during the youth awareness picnic organised by gender affairs department in collaboration with Ministry of Youth Empowerement, Sports and Culture Development (MYSC) in Francistown, she said the youth tended to tolerate any form of abuse in the name of love.

Narrating her story, she said it was around 2016 when she realised that it was high time she freed herself from all the abuse she was going through from her stay-in partner.

She said all started because of her partner’s anger after the pair was robbed and a cellphone stolen. She said that due to that anger everything started to be sour in their relationship.

Ms Khupe said GBV perpetrators normaly were most trusted by the victims; hence she never thought such kind of violence would befall her.

She said she decided to relocate to Francistown from Gaborone so that she could finish her studies without disturbance and told the partner that she was relocating to a different place. 

She said the partner  was enraged and ended up dragging her down from a moving car losing her arm in the process.

Due to that incidence, she was in coma for almost two months and lost her memory, but because of counselling she went through, she managed to overcome everything and gained her memory back.

Ms Khupe said her support system was her family members as they also went for therapy so they could get to know and understand how to deal with her. 

She said losing her other arm did not deter her from pursuing her dreams as of now she is into business of producing mushrooms through the funding from MYSC.

She appealed to youth to always be mindful of any signs of abuse and take action before it is too late. Youth counselor, Ms Refilwe Banyeletse, said transactional sex had an impact towards GBV as one party feel cheated when the relationship ends. 

She said people normally engage in transactional sex for improved social status adding that at times people engage in such to complement basic or material needs at the time.

She said transactional sex was influenced by unemployment common among youths impacted by unemployment and poverty. 

She encouraged all to define relationship they were willing to get into so that they avoid any form of abuse in future.

Senior gender officer, Mr Kabelo Tsiang said government was concerned by the level of GBV among the youth as compared to other age demographics hence the youth picnic organised to give youths privilege to air out their concerns on GBV. Ends