First lady donates to four schools

03 Oct 2024

First Lady Neo Masisi’s quest to empower school children continues.

Yesterday, Ms Masisi also ambassador of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother, donated stationery packs and books to Gaborone schools namely; Mephane, Morula,  Bonnington and Phillip Moshotle primaries.

The donation ceremony, which was held at Morula Primary School, follows the launch of the Merck Foundation More Than a Mother and the donation of bicycles to girls.

The donation was made up of 3 900 copies of each of four story books titled More Than a Mother, Not Who You Are, Sugar Free Jude and Mark’s Pressure.

More Than a Mother highlights cultural shift and discourages stigma associated with infertility while Not Who You Are addresses gender-based violence in Africa and highlights the prevalence on the issue due to illiteracy and patriarchal systems.

Sugar Free Jude creates awareness on non-communicable diseases, highlighting the prevention of diabetes and early detection while Mark’s Pressure highlights the causes of early hypertension and raises awareness on early detection, prevention and management.

First Lady Masisi said the books were meant to arm the children with information for the present and the future. The donation also included 3 000 stationery packs.

Moreover, Ms Masisi announced that Merck Foundation would, at a later stage, donate sanitary packs, which she said were essential for the health of pupils and would ensure that the girl child stayed in school without disruptions.

Merck Foundation, a German establishment that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of communities and advance their lives through science and technology, launched its programmes in Botswana in collaboration with the First Lady, who is also the ambassador of the foundation’s More Than a Mother segment, whose special focus is on women and youth in underserved communities.

Also UNAIDS champion ambassador for the empowerment and engagement of adolescent girls and young women, Ms Masisi said her focus was on preventing girls from attracting HIV.

She said girls and young women continued to contract HIV. Last year, Ms Masisi launched Education Plus, an initiative which seeks to elongate the girl child’s stay in school to keep her away from vulnerability to HIV infections.

Ms Masisi said problems bedevilling children could not go away without a collaborative multifaceted approach to prevent and address them.

She said supporting learners was part of attaining Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all, while also advancing Botswana’s Vision 2036, which highlights education as achieving prosperity for all.

Meanwhile, the First Lady pledged P10 000 to Morula Primary School for achieving a 100 per cent pass in their 2023 PSLE results.

She urged pupils to look after their newly-opened school and encouraged them to be mindful of the monetary value of the school construction and daily running. She said just as schools had prefects, they also needed to have pupils’ facility ambassadors who would be in charge of schools’ infrastructure.

Earlier on, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Ms Bonolo Khumotaka said First Lady Masisi was a critical stakeholder in Botswana’s education sector, appreciating her efforts of delivering her mandate to the youth across the country. ENDS

Source : BOPA

Author : Ketshepile More

Location : GABORONE

Event : donation

Date : 03 Oct 2024