by Kate Lambert | Nov 9, 2016 | News About Help Lesotho |
International Youth Day 2016: The Road to 2030
The following is a copy of a speech delivered by Boithatelo Khobotlo for International Youth Day 2016. Boithatelo is a member of Help Lesotho’s GIRL4ce Movement, where she participates in gender equity advocacy initiatives in her community.
“I am standing here today as a youth representative from the GIRL4ce movement under the organisation of Help Lesotho. This movement is fighting against girls and women abuse in areas of Child Early and Forced Marriage and Sexual and Gender Based Violence. Both girls and boys are part of this Movement and we are doing our best to raise awareness in our communities so girls will be protected and given support.
Our Ministers, teachers, parents and youth, we are gathered today to commemorate the International Youth Day and the theme for this year reads, “The Road to 2030: Eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable consumption and production”. As far as I am concerned there is no way we can eradicate poverty while there is still a lot of girls that are getting married at early ages, some are forced into marriages and so many are sexually abused. We have to keep our heads up and fight for a free Lesotho. We cannot do this alone. Boys! Boys! We need your help to fight all these forms of abuse. Most of the perpetrators are you. We see lots of girls who drop out from school because of pregnancy; we see lots of maternal mortality from girls not having access to help; we see lots of new HIV and STI’s infections; and we see lots of girls suffering from physical and emotional abuse.
You will agree with me that we cannot accept that out of 81% of girls and women who are abused only 3% of them are reporting the abuse. Why? Why should we be ashamed or scared to report abuse? There are laws there to protect us from abuse, so let us make sure that we enforce the laws for our protection.
How can we fight poverty with the abuse taking place? We are the leaders for today, we need to stand up and fight for our rights as girls and boys.
LET US BREAK THE SILENCE AND SAY NO TO ALL FORMS OF ABUSE TO WOMEN AND GIRLS!!!”
by Kate Lambert | Oct 11, 2016 | General |
Help Lesotho ran a poetry competition where girls were encouraged to write about the theme of the 2016 International Day of the Girl Child – The Power of the Adolescent Girl.
The winning poem was written by a 15-year old girl named Litumelo. Litumelo lives in a tiny community in rural Lesotho where girls are constantly struggling to meet their basic needs and have their human rights respected. Gender-based violence is rampant, girls as young as 13 are forced into marriages, and 40% of girls have babies before they are 19 years old.
Litumelo’s poem reminds us why we need to celebrate the International Day of the Girl – because when girls are empowered, everyone benefits.
The Power of the Adolescent Girl by Litumelo
An adolescent girl.
She is gorgeous,
her beauty emanates from her heart.
She is a dynamite,
she is tiny but stronger than an elephant.
The power of the adolescent girl resides in her dreams.
The adolescent girl has power.
She is the barriers breaker and
the world changer.
Her eyes are sharper than any two-edged sword
she can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
She is a woman of substance
with the deepest sense of purpose.
She is ready to release her potential.
by Kate Lambert | Apr 29, 2016 | News About Help Lesotho |
On the first day of LIT, I encountered a group of three young men and asked them, like I had asked everyone else, if I could take a picture of them. They silently stared at me for a few moments and then one of them said, “Wait, I’m drinking water.” As I waited, I began to see that he was purposely drinking slowly, relishing whatever power he thought he held over me by making me wait.
Read more about the impact of Help Lesotho’s Leaders-in-Training program.
by Kate Lambert | Apr 9, 2016 | News About Help Lesotho |
In 2006, married women in the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho, gained equal legal standing to men under the Legal Capacity of Married Persons Act. It’s been over 10 years since these laws were put into place to protect women from gender inequality and abuse.
How are things doing in Lesotho since then?
by Kate Lambert | Mar 16, 2016 | News About Help Lesotho |
The International Women’s Day (IWD) campaign theme for 2016, #PledgeForParity, means that, “Everyone – men and women – can pledge to take a concrete step in achieving gender parity more quickly.”
Read how Girl4ce is engaging men and boys for women’s rights.
