Thabas out to preserve families
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday November 15, 2021 06:13
They are currently undergoing their third Family Building campaign in Serowe. The first campaign the foundation led was a nationwide campaign that had 82 leaders from various locations around the country. Each of the 82 leaders led small groups for 13 weeks consisting of around 1,200 participants. Each group met weekly and studied the Thabas’ marriage book and watched their TV show, Talking with the Thabas, to learn practical tips on how to improve their relationships. One of these 82 groups was led in the village of Rakops. Soon, the group grew to the point it got the attention of the village leadership because they noted that participants had noticeable character changes. Suicide rates dropped, divorces were halted, GBV rates improved, and people participating were generally happier. “As the area legislator, the Vice President Slumber Tsogwane was asked by the leadership of the village to facilitate the Thabas to go to Rakops to teach these various relationship skills in person.
That campaign also proved to be a success attracting 67 leaders who were trained for 13 days back in March of this year. Each of those leaders then went and trained 897 participants over the 13-day campaign. The campaign was live-streamed on Facebook and soon the leader of the village of Serowe contacted the Thabas and invited them to do a similar campaign in Serowe,” Ashley Thaba said. She said the campaign kicked off at the Serowe kgotla on November 1, attracting a large crowd of over 500. The campaign is sponsored by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development as well as the European Union.
Thaba said the planning of the campaign was mainly done by the Member of Parliament’s Office of Serowe South Constituency Leepetswe Lesedi. The Healthy Families Foundation and an interdenominational church committee are headed by Godiraone Khumo and Thatayotlhe Seithamo. “Each morning from November 2-17, at the Serowe College of Education, 103 volunteer leaders gathered to learn from the Thabas a different relationship skill from their book, namely: Unmet Expectations, Communication, Preparing for Marriage, Conflict Resolution, His Needs/Her Needs, Love Languages, Gender-Based Violence, Children, In-laws, Substance Abuse, Spirituality, Finances, and how to affair-proof your marriage. Every day after these 103 leaders are trained, they go out into the village and each person trains a group of 10-30 others. In this way, every day for 13 working days, over 1,000 participants are trained in these relationship skills.
Thanks to the sponsors of this campaign, every participant gets their own copy of the book to study in these small group discussions. The numerous small groups meet all over from kgotlas, churches, college classrooms, community halls, under trees, people’s homes, etc,” she said. Thaba said they were happy that even police officers working with the gender unit, have done a phenomenal job of mobilising many participants. She said the police stated that if many of the couples who end up at the police station due to gender-based violence had this training, they would never end up at police stations. She said they have committed to even continuing to teach the Thabas' book through these small group discussions when the Thabas leave because they believe the information needs to be disseminated throughout the village to improve families and decrease many of the social ills that land people at the police station. “Overall, the campaign has injected life and hope into many relationships.
People are turning up in large numbers and hundreds of people are already testifying to improvement in their relationships as they have begun applying the tips the Thabas are teaching. One local pastor even commented that Serowe will never be the same by the time this campaign is over,” she said.