10 Sep 2024

Another society of women looking to uplift their lives through resource pooling has been born, adding to quite a sizable number of women’s organisation mandated to meet the societal needs.

Bomme Thari Society, a 15-women Good Hope-based group, which was conceived by Ms Dineo Mtengi in 2022, has been advised to seek partnerships with similar and older groups so as to learn the ropes of running and organising a society for the purpose of edifying the nation.

Launching Bomme Thari on September 7, Minister of Finance, Ms Peggy Serame mentioned a number of societies that the new kid on the block could learn from such as Lentswe la Basadi in Tonota of which she is a member, Mma Kgosi’s society in Phitshane Molopo and Mosadi Pinagare in the Morolong area. She implored such societies to collaborate for effective and efficient delivery of their mandate.

Ms Serame emphasised that new society members should acquaint themselves with laws governing societies and learn financial management for the prudent use of resources, which could only be possible through diligent book keeping and audits.

She warned that ignorance of financial laws could render the society susceptible to financial misappropriation, adding that civil servants were available to assist in such issues.

Seeing that LEA officers were present, Ms Serame encouraged Bomme Thari members to get in touch with them and strive to access Chema Chema fund.

She shared that in some countries, Chema Chema transformed the lives of many, especially women, who were mostly suffering the burden of poverty while carrying the responsibility of taking care of families. Chema Chema also changed some countries economic landscape, Ms Serame explained.

She also advised Bomme Thari to assess the nation to identify challenges that needed their attention, citing gender-based violence, which she said was a thorn in the flesh of today’s society.

Ms Serame opined that sometimes abuse was exacerbated by the decaying moral fabric of the society.

She said the fact that Bomme Thari had only 15 members, but managed to organise such a big event in the launch, showed that the society was destined for great things, especially growth in terms of membership.

She encouraged them to strive for at least 50 members by the end of the year, advising that they could achieve that milestone by revising their membership prerequisites. Moreover, Ms Serame gifted the society 50 white shawls and 50 dukes as a symbol of her desire to see them reach the 50-member mark by the end of 2024.

Another assignment that Ms Serame gave Bomme Thari was to try and save young people, whom she said were wandering the street not knowing what to do with their lives, which situation sometimes led them to delinquency and landed them on the wrong side of the law.

To drive the point home, Ms Serame brought along Prof. Setumile Morapedi, the founder of Youth Education and Empowerment Trust, a charitable project geared towards assisting out of school youth to improve their grades and to enroll into academic tutorial and vocational schools.

The retired Prof. Morapedi explained that when she was a lecturer at the University of Botswana, she embarked on a community upliftment project sponsored by her employer. She said the project, which she started in Moshupa, her home village, had already borne fruit as most of them had graduated with different professions and were already employed in different sectors such nursing, teaching, electric installation, construction and others.

The living example of the success of Prof. Morapedi’s initiative is Mr Moemedi Makhurutha, who testified of the goodness of the trust, explaining how it lifted him from being a mere Performing Arts teacher to being an Applied Drama and Theatre practitioner.

He said after graduating from the project he was employed to lecture at Limkokwing University of Arts and Technology in Gaborone, during his employment he requested Prof. Morapedi to assist him apply to Wits University in South Africa, to further his studies.

Meanwhile, Mr Makhurutha had applied for CIPA sponsorship, which he secured at the value of P1 million. As a product of community upliftment project, Mr Makhurutha said he decided to share the P1 million with three other beneficiaries, who went with him to Wits, all expenses paid from the CIPA funds.

The Wits studies culminated into a graduation of four Applied Drama and Theatre practitioners, thus Botswana as a whole possesses only four of such professionals – a scarce skill they use to embark on community projects where they teach, resuscitate and guide performing artistes. ENDS