29 Mar 2022

The Healthy Family Foundation, through the Thabas, has embarked on a campaign to build strong families as another way of reducing social ills.

“A family is the foundation of the nation, therefore when families are strong, we will have a strong nation, free from bad habits,” said Kgosi Tshipe Tshipe during the launch of the campaign in Mahalapye on Monday. 

Kgosi Tshipe expressed hope that the campaign, which ends on April 14, would bear positive results in terms of changing peoples’ behaviour and attitude. 

He said building strong families would also enable people to make good decisions and he encouraged participants to share what they learnt from the event with their family members as the teachings could bring change to the community.

Healthy Families Foundation trustee chairperson, Mr Percy Thaba, said their vision was to build healthy families and a strong nation. 

“Families are suffering from various social ills, which are weakening the nation. We have come up with this platform to try and mould characters, give people hope and take them back to good morals,” said Mr Thaba. 

He regretted that the family concept had lost its qualities due to a number of factors, among them, gender based violence as well as drug and substance abuse. 

He also emphasised the need for families to invite God into their lives to be able to face all challenges and find ways to overcome them. 

Mr Thaba also noted that together with his wife, Ashley, they produced Talking with the Thabas, a television show on Botswana Television to address family issues. 

“To complement the TV show content, we have published books and have also recently embarked on family building campaigns,” he said. 

For her part, Ms Thaba explained that the TV show has had a positive impact on peoples’ lives as it had managed to change the behaviours of some who were now able to make good decisions in their families. 

“We wish to see love, joy, peace and happiness where there was violence and anger. We also desire for light to replace darkness and for the revival of Mahalapye community to change their attitude,” she added. 

In his closing remarks, Mahalapye West MP, Mr David Tshere expressed gratitude that the teachings to be shared by the Thabas would help reduce social ills. 

“I encourage Mahalapye residents to attend the teachings as they can help to solve some of the social ills in our community,” he added. Ends