13 Oct 2014

Women are the pinnacle of society and hold households together in the midst of challenges they faced. 

They have for decades gone beyond their limits in taking care of those that they love. 

Women also need to be loved, respected, nurtured and taken care of among other things. 

It was not so long ago when a woman’s place was said to be at home, this has changed as women now hold positions of responsibility and run their own businesses. One such woman is Ms Masego Mmipi, who runs Kgetsi Ya Tsie, an organisation that was set up with the objective of helping under privileged women to tackle poverty.

Not only has her ambition, dedication, hard work and passion for helping under privileged woman won her praise among her peers, she is also set to travel to France to attend the Women for Change awards ceremony with other nominees from other African countries.

Speaking about the ceremony, public relations and Orange Foundation manager Ms Boga Chilinde said the Women for Change award is organised by Orange Foundation, Womens Forum and Marie-Claire magazine.

She said the award is meant for women who have dedicated their lives to improving the lives of other people and that the nominees come from African countries that Orange is operating from.

“Other countries include Mali, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger,” she said. These countries will also have a woman nominee at the awards ceremony, she added.

She said in May this year, Orange Botswana worked closely with the Department of Gender Affairs to identify organisations run by women who uplift the lives of other people.

“The names were then sent to France where Kgetsi Ya Tsie got the nod from other organisations hence they were chosen to represent Botswana,” said Ms Chilinde.

Each of the two winners will walk away with 25 000 euros (P300 000). 

“The first winner will be chosen by the participating countries and the second winner will be chosen at the forum in France,” she said. All nominees will also get 5 000 euros, (P60 000) for having been nominated.

She said the awards ceremony will be held from 15-17 October this year in France.

For her part, Ms Mmipi said Kgetsi Ya Tsie is situated in Lerala village, in the Tswapong North area.

“The organisation was registered in 1999, it operates in 29 villages and has over 1500 members aimed at empowering women to start small businesses,” she said.

Kgetsi Ya Tsie was set to prevent women from relocating to urban areas in search of better lives, she added.

Ms Mmipi thanked the government for the support when they started the organisation. 

She said, “Government helped us with funding and organising trips to other countries for benchmarking purposes.” The relationship with government helped them to secure donors, she added.

Ms Mmipi said businesses that are usually undertaken by the under privileged women are poultry, bakeries, basket making, knitting and selling indigenous natural resources.

She said, “We help with the funding and when they start reaping the benefits, they pay back the loans we gave them” adding that they do not only give them money, but they help with financial education and vet out the project before funding is done.

She said if she wins the money, she would expand her infrastructure more especially on the nursery side to accommodate more children. 

Ms Mmipi urged Batswana to vote for her on www.fondationorange.com. She left for France on Sunday, October 12. ENDS