07 Nov 2021

 Ms Ashley Thaba of The Healthy Families Foundation says effective communication is a bedrock to a good relationship that one has with their loved ones.

She said this during the ongoing 12-day campaign in Serowe which she and her husband Mr Percy Thaba have embarked on to fight social ills such as substance abuse, Gender Based Violence, and financial stress. 

The couple said the campaign was intended to strengthen  families for the betterment of national social fabric.

Ms Thaba said most of the time relationships, particularly marriages fail because of lack of good communication. She said couples with poor communication have difficulties in resolving their issues, which usually led to verbal or physical fights. 

She said communicating does not mean people would always reach the same agreement, but made it easier to find a common ground, thus avoiding conflicts.

She explained that one of the things that made marriages fail was that people did not discuss issues such as finances, place of residence after marriage and how many children they would have. 

She said because lack of effective communication was one of the contributing factors to high statistics of gender-based violence, they decided to put a greater emphasis on it in their campaign, with hope to help eliminate the problem.

She said the campaign was for both married and unmarried couples, adding that it was vital that people lived in peace in their families, which was a foundation of a peaceful nation.

One of the facilitators in this campaign, Ms Dorothy Mpelega said she was appreciative of the campaign and being part of it had helped her improve on her relationships with her loved ones. 

She said through the campaign, she learnt that gender-based violence was a great concern in the country and it was necessary to find solutions to the issues that led to it.

Ms Rebecca Molebinyane, a participant in the campaign, said the initiative was an eye opener to some of the social problems in the country. 

She said it was important to know how to communicate in order to avoid conflicts. 

She said communication had always been part of the Setswana culture, but nowadays it was not held in high regard. 

‘In the past we knew that ntwa kgolo ke ya molomo, meaning every issue can be resolved by peacefully talking about it, but these days people resort to being physical and this leads to gender-based violence,’She said. 

She encouraged residents to take part in the campaign to enjoy its great benefits. 

Sharing insights of their experiences in the area, Mr Thaba said the campaign faced challenges such as lack of financial support, explaining that at the moment they had only two sponsors being Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the European Union. 

He explained that the campaign required a lot of money, therefore they need more sponsors.

He said they experienced a challenge with coordinating the campaign in Serowe because of the huge size of the village. 

He said going forward they would come with better strategies to systematise the programme for successful impact. 

He said of the areas they had  been to, Serowe was second after Rakops and their desire was to cover most of the places across the country. ENDS