05 Nov 2020

The newly crowned Mrs Botswana 2020, Tsaone Bakwena intends to sensitise and raise awareness on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and social ills during her reign. 

Speaking in an interview, Bakwena noted that as numbers of GBV cases and for those engaged in social ills continued to be a challenge, there was a need to continue with spreading messages that would help combat these challenges.

She said her focus was to spread  messages among primary school going learners aged nine years and above with the intention to catch them young on issues of  GBV and other social ills.

The queen said though GBV and social ill messages were habitually dispersed, they seemed to cater for the youth and elderly excluding the minors and people only reacted and responded once a minor had been affected.

She said engaging them at a tender age would help them identify GBV related acts and take action when confronted with such challenges.

She said children were the future generation and it was imperative for them to be taught and showed the difference between wrong and right at an early age.

Bakwena noted that some minors were raised up in settings that exposed them to social ills and GBV and followed suit as they grew and continued to practice bad behavioural patterns.

“Some families  normalises  and tolerate domestic violence, emotional abuse and other related  forms of GBV, in the long run this turns to bring a negative impact among minors who grew up under such conditions,” she said.

Therefore, she said she would visit primary schools in Gaborone and other villages to empower and encourage minors to engage in positive behavioural practices despite the environment they were raised under.

“I will teach them about morality and acceptable behavioural ways and instill a sense that no matter the disagreement, violence was and would never be the answer hence it was wrong to resort to it,” she said. 

Bakwena further mentioned that she was working in partnership with Tsholofelong Youth and Children Centre at old Naledi location.

She said the centre cares for 60 children from different family backgrounds, mostly being the needy and disadvantaged.

The children visit the centre during the day after school to be assisted with their assignments and be given other basic necessities.

Meanwhile, Bakwena said her journey into pageantry started in 2009, where she managed to make it to top 12 of Miss Botswana pageant. Again, in 2013, she tried again, and made it to top 13. 

Bakwena said she had also pursued modelling and took part in some fashion shows such as Gaborone Fashion Week, Color in the Dessert, Barclays Charity, among others. ENDS