20 May 2021

In her efforts to fight  gender based violence (GBV) and child abuse, the First Lady, Ms Neo Masisi, joined hands with Merck Foundation to create awareness through Best Poster Contest.

Speaking at an award ceremony in Gaborone on Wednesday, Ms Masisi said GBV had rendered some families dysfunctional, hindered achievement of development goals and promoted disunity within communities.

The First Lady explained that the ‘Stop GBV’ initiative and the Best Poster Contest would contribute towards the efforts of ending GBV.

She further noted that the Best Poster Contest initiative aimed at contributing towards eliminating GBV.

The First Lady further explained that the competition was held across Botswana with the intention to select the most creative and inspiring work advocating one of the key contest objectives.

“The key objectives included, among others, to stop GBV, help people understand that GBV is unacceptable and evil, promote zero tolerance of GBV and demonstrate that GBV can be emotional, financial and physical,” she said.

The challenge, she said, was open for both females and males from the age of 18 to 55 and all Batswana regardless of place of residence were eligible to enter the contest.

When awarding the top 13 finalists with the certificates, Ms Masisi applauded them for their hard work saying to some contesters it was not about a competition, but they also shared their personal experiences through the posters.

For her part, the Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Ms Anna Mokgethi, applauded the First Lady for partnering with Merck foundation in the fight against GBV.

She said the initiative could not have come at a better time when the country was facing a GBV crisis,with one  in three women having experienced abuse in their lifetime, according to the 2018 National Relationship Study.

“The World Population Review (2019) places Botswana as the second country on rape cases at 92.9 per cent”, said Minister Mokgethi.

She said, despite efforts to mitigate GBV, the number of GBV cases were still on the rise. 

Meanwhile, Dr Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and One of the 100 Most Influential Africans also highlighted that violence against girls, women, and children continued to be a pressing issue not only in Africa but everywhere across the globe.

 “With the Best Poster Contest in partnership with The First Lady of Botswana, we hope to bring a change in our societies and convey that prevention of gender-based violence is a basic human right”,  Dr Kelej said.

She also explained that Merck Foundation was established in 2017 and was the philanthropic arm of Merck Germany, aiming at  improving the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology, hence it would  continue working with Botswana  to stop GBV and child abuse. ENDS