Gogontlejang always thinks about helping the under privileged members of society. The Standard Five pupil at Galaletsang Primary School at Phase II in Gaborone has already hatched and executed a plan to help the needy. She collects clothes to give to the poor.
She has been doing her charity work since she was five. It came after she heard appeals on the Radio Botswana programme, “Botlhale jwa Phala” about a destitute old man who needed help in Molepolole. She was only five years old but she decided to donate her jersey to the old man.
Her parents told her that she could not donate a jersey because it was going to be too small for the old man. Instead she parted with her blanket.
She said she is always touched when she sees other people suffer. Gogontle is not only involved in charity work. She is an aspiring poet. She has composed a poem about 2016. She recited a poem during the June 16 commemorations of apartheid military raids in Botswana.
However, it is not only her poems which have caught the attention of the community, but her involvement in charity.
In June, she donated clothing to destitutes and orphans at a ceremony at the Gaborone City Council (GCC). She collected the clothes from her relatives. She said she is grateful to all the people who made the event a success, especially the council social welfare officers who identified the beneficiaries.
Currently, she is working on another project to collect more clothing for the needy. She is assisted in this effort by a local radio station, YaRona FM, and a management consultant, Taolo Moshaga. Anybody who has something to donate can drop it at the YaRona FM offices at the Fairgrounds Mall.
The collection will be donated to the underprivileged of Gaborone West in September. ‘
On Friday, a South African television station, ‘Channel O’ donated a cheque of R1 000 to Phaladi to use in her charity work. Representatives of the station said they saw her being interviewed on Btv.
Sitting at home, she looks like any other 10-year-old. But she speaks like a seasoned activist. Her dream is that one day, HIV/AIDS and fatal road accidents will be things of the past.
“This is just one of my dreams. I think we should be a caring nation,” she says.
She describes herself as a Christian but she only worships at home. Family members say she leads prayers at home. She says President Festus Mogae is her role model because she feels that he has made efforts to change society.
Interestingly, Phaladi wants to become the country’s president in future. She wants to devote her life to helping people who are in need.
She says teachers at her school have been supportive of her work. Her mother, Onnameditse Phaladi, says she is proud of what her daughter is doing.
Onnameditse says when her daughter expressed concern about how other people were suffering, she told her that her family is also not well off. “But she told us that at least we had something compared to other destitute families.
Onnameditse recalled one incident in 2000 when the family bought their daughter clothes for Christmas. She threatened not to wear the clothes because the money should have been used to buy presents for more needy children at Old Naledi.
At some stage, they were concerned that their daughter’s preoccupation with charity would put her under pressure. However, they did not have to worry because they were dealing with somebody who knows how to manage her time. She does not even spend much time playing.
“At times we complain that she does not relax by playing. But she tell us that she is excited by doing charity work”. She added that her daughter is a well- behaved child who performs brilliantly at school.
Onnameditse has always been at the top of her class. She said her councillor has told the family that the young woman wants to study economics and become president. She added that when they talk to their daughter she reasons like a mature person.
Onnameditse says when the family goes to their home village in Maunatlala, her child makes sure that she collects Vision 2016 pamphlets to distribute.
Her behaviour has enlightened her family about the plight of the needy.
“We have given her the go-ahead to continue with her charity projects,” says the proud mother.
Onnameditse is an author. She has published a book with Longmans. Her husband, Salaleene Phaladi, is a retired anthropologist
