Lesotho: Ministry of Education and Training promotes Literacy and Numeracy

This is really a good project because there is no one who is doing this project. I invented this project in 1999 and was put into practise in 2000. It is still existing even today. This project will combine males and females together without any discrimination.

Key objectives of this project is to bring all people together for the betterment of their country, Their SADC Region, African Union and the United Nations. “Charity begins at home but should not end there”. This means that if Basotho have something good, this good thing should not only for Basotho Nation but we should share it with all Nations in the world. This 50/50 project will be known by the United Nations from a small country of Lesotho.

The main activities are:

• They had to seek for all people who are using different surnames from : A ,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z.
• All surnames are now represented in the project.
• Everything will be seen during the presentation.

The project has benefited about 620women with 60 active groups. The project reached 680  beneficiaries.

Each and every step had to be checked properly if the work was still moving forward or backwards. We had to call other people for checking the progress. Evaluation is normally done at the end of the project. This is an ongoing project but will be evaluated in 2020. The main purpose of the evaluation is to check the weakness and strengths of the project.

The main challenges of this project were lack of understanding of the people. Since, this is new in Lesotho that’s why people are reluctant to understand it. But it is now better because I was once called by the Ministry of Education and Training for presentation.

Women had to start their association for upbringing the sons and daughters together. Those sons and daughters have to be taught how to respect one another or each other. Education is the most important aspect of life.

Some of the men supported it while others said No. This issue of 50/50 has not been accepted by some of the men because they said it supports the women not men.

My spouse’s name is ‘Matema Tema, I used to work in the kitchen even in her presence. This shows that I do not discriminate any kind of work at my home. We work together as a family because of gender issues.

People have already started to change bit by bit. In the beginning it was really difficult for the people to adopt this new style of living according to the principles of gender. Gender matters need someone who knows how to talk to others. Someone who is polite not some rude.