Mothers-for-All offers family security to orphans

SELEBI-PHIKWE: Neo Sekoba, 24, has a very emotionally moving story to tell. After she became an orphan in 2003, life was never the same. Though she passed Form Five well, she did not go to university because there was nobody to facilitate her application with the necessary financial support.

She did not have the money needed to apply for admission or to travel around. She was invited for job interviews by the police and prisons department but she never made it because she did not have the fare. "I finished my O'levels in 2007 and in the following two years, I failed to go to school. At one point, I failed because I just had money for a medical examination only and in another incident I had used somebody else's post box only to discover the admission letter way after the deadline elapsed because the post box owner was not around," she says.

Despite the challenges, she never gave up. "I always had faith in life and I understood that God made me an orphan for a reason and I always had hope that I will achieve something one day," she says. During her tribulations, a Good Samaritan introduced her to Mothers-for-All, a trust whose aim is to develop a sustainable model of support for orphans and vulnerable children.Its members, who are unemployed women, earn a living from making paper bead jewellery, bookmarks, handmade paper cards and notepapers from recycled waste materials.Mothers-for-All sponsored Sekoba to study for a certificate in Social Work at Bosa Bosele College. She passed with distinction.From the money she earned from working for the trust, she managed to apply for education sponsorship from government. "I am now leading a stress-free life. With my first cheque from Mothers-for-All, I managed to travel to Gaborone to apply for tertiary education financing and even paid application fees. I am now hopeful of going for further studies," she says. By studying social work, she expects to help those in the same situation as her. "If it was not for social workers, I do not know what would have happened to me," she says.

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The people have spoken

In fact, early election results in some areas across the country, speak to large voter turnout which suggests that voters crowded at polling stations to decide appropriately. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) revealed that 80% of the 1,037,684 people who had registered to vote turned up to exercise their right.It’s unfortunate that at the time of cobbling this editorial comment, results had just started trickling in. We recognise that...

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