Lesotho – Marelebohile Mothibi

A special moment of significant in Mrs Mothibili’s life was always giving up on her dreams or things she wished to do before she even began. Due to low self-esteem, lack of confidence and trust, she denied herself to possible opportunities in life. Had she it not been a member of gender links which uplifted her and turned her into a driver of change she doubts she would have been the empowered business minded woman that she is today.  

Her daily work is taking care of her household until schools resume from holidays so that she can continue with the scheme of school feeding programme. The work she does in this programme is to cook for preschool pupils and gets paid for her services 

What has changed in Mrs Mothibili’s life is that she has grown in self-confidence and more aware of her rights as a woman. This has changed due to the influence gender links had on her. The trainings she has gone through have equipped her with the knowledge on women’s rights and skills and techniques of running a business thus credit goes to Gender links. Most importantly credit goes to Mme Ntolo. The skills she has gathered are those of drawing a business plan and keeping records of the business. Apart from gender links her family specifically her sister in law and her brother have given her support especially when she needed them most. For instance whenever she wants to start a new project whether it is going to fail or not they finance them. 

Due to change in character and better approach to life she can, her family is always willing to assist especially in areas where finances are concerned. They see and understand what she wants to achieve and what better way to assist but give her the leverage she requires to get going. Mrs Mothibli believes it is early days to tell if she has had any influence in other people’s lives apart from her family. 

Apart from gathering knowledge through gender links she gathers it from other women who are in the same and different business as her ideas. The very same information she would have gathered she shares it with gender links which in return the gender links office uses the information to clarify areas where she did not understand and also to upgrade the training and workshops it offers. 

Mrs Mothibili does not have a steady source of income currently. The grant she receives on school feeding programmes for preschool pupils is her current source of income. Meaning she gets income only when children are back in schools. She overcomes this challenge by occupying herself with household work. Her future plans are to build hostels/ rental rooms.