Empowering Basotho Women and Breaking Social Norms

                                                  The ladies of Rutanang ka Lerato.

                                                  The ladies of Rutanang ka Lerato.

In the previous blog we talked about our women’s support group, Learning with Love or Rutanang ka Lerato. The women of this group were trained over the course of four months on a weekly basis and were trained on self-confidence, self worth, goal setting, communication and how to start conversations with their children along with much else. Most of the women are raising their children alone as they are widowed and single mothers. The support group training gave the women the confidence to work on their parenting styles and support their children in new ways.

Bo-'m'e dancing and celebrating their accomplishments. Khelele! 

Bo-'m'e dancing and celebrating their accomplishments. Khelele! 

On November 16th, the ladies of Rutanang ka Lerato, had their graduation from training after four months of hard work. The morning of the graduation ceremony the women went out and put up the tent for all the guests and the villagers. This is a task usually delegated as men’s work, but the women took the initiative and raised the tent, a first for the village of Nk’hu Nk’hu. The ceremony was full of singing and dancing and the women got to show off how proud they are of themselves and what they have learned. One member of the support group, 'Nteboheleng Kebane, gave a speech in which she thanked Rutanang Community Foundation (RCF) for empowering the women with the knowledge and skills to believe in themselves. She noted that she learned many things, but the thing that stood out the most to her was learning about the rights of children and how to respect their rights. ‘Nteboheleng compared the skills that they learned during their training to water, saying that water is life, and their newly acquired skills are life.

The graduation ceremony was graced by the presence of the representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Lesotho Mounted Police Services, LENASO, and WorldVision. The representatives from these organizations congratulated the women for completing this important training and being willing to take a stand in their community. They commended the ladies for their effort in helping orphans and vulnerable children(OVCs), protecting OVCs rights, and fighting abuse in their community. The various organizations are excited for the work RCF is doing and also looking forward to partnering with RCF in the future.

The ladies after receiving their certificates.

The ladies after receiving their certificates.

Now that the ladies’ training is complete the support group plans to work with orphans and vulnerable children in Nk’hu Nk’hu to provide psycho-social support. The women will also be reaching out to other women by establishing support groups in different villages to empower women throughout their area.