SA: Mokgobja Melida

“COMMUNITY DEVELPOMENT WORKER”

As a dedicated leader I decided to get involved in gender work after seeing many women suffering, due to discrimination and lack of better education. This situation pushed me to engage in programmes that involved women, men and youth so that I can help them uplift their lives to the better, in terms of education, training and recruitment.

I qualify to be a driver change as I have managed to touch and change the lives of many people in our programme in our district by creating 325 jobs. I started being a leader at the age of 29. In 1998 I was a volunteer at Sebayeng Clinic as a health committee. I am now the co-founder of an NPO called Tiangmaatla Home Based founded in 2004 and Drop-in and Youth Centre established in 2009. I am a role model in the community of ward 32 and 33 and a woman of development.

My first leadership role was at the age of 29. Three pensioners in my community were complaining about their pension fund and I took them to the legislature to solve their problems. Mrs Mokgopo’s finger prints did not appear in the ID document and I went along with them to the Department of Home Affairs and used her leg thumb and now she has an ID document.

I helped three children 2 boys and a girl who came to me crying and telling me that they have no food and they are not going to school, and that their mother left them alone. I had to stand up and investigate. I found out that their mother was married and when she left her husband she took the kids with her and came with them in our neighbourhood, and then left them there. When we tried to enrol them at Sebayeng Primary we found out that she left with their removes and we had to go to the police station for an affidavit so we can enrol them at a school, and luckily it happened.

The objectives for this project is to promote equality for both women and men, including youth and the elderly. It also aims to see women achieving greater things in life and uplifting the standard of living in our country and to continue to make sure that the community collaborates with the Departments, for instance Labour, Social Development and Health.

As a leader I managed to change the lives of many people by creating job opportunities in the community. I even supported people through school to complete their certificates. Men can now work at the bakery and do some cooking. That is one of the things that have changed in gender equality in the community. Back in the days most gardening was done by men in our community, I taught ladies how to take care of the garden. In fact in the organisation both men and women can do any job. During our meetings we let everybody raise opinions and participate but more men are required.

Maria Talakgale says “I came to Mrs Matsi looking for a job. I told her about my situation, she took me and gave me job. I am now working and earning a stipend at the end of every month. I can take care of myself and I never go hungry because of her.”

I get to give students an opportunity to do practical work when they are from a college or universities and for those who have completed I give them jobs in order to for them to gain experience. It’s a great honour for me to help everyone as much as I can especially women and children also youth.

The policy level at our organisation has improved rapidly and everyone is comfortable. It has also changed people’s attitude, they now have a positive attitude and everyone is driven to be successful.

My goal is to not just employ men and women in our community but to help them further their learning and training. I try to organise workshops training for employees in our Home Based Care, Drop in Centre, Youth Development, and care generating program. There were 77 employees both care workers and peer educators who became ARAMAR institution accredited AGRISEYA Dioka Institution provided an agriculture training for 20 women in our greenery project . We also had four care workers trained in Re-Engineering with the DOH FPD. The largest training was a health and safety training in which 120 employees participated.

I want to reach a bigger audience with my leadership skills. I know there are many other people outside of my community that need inspiration and support. I would like to reach out to other nearby communities and teach them what I have learned so they can promote equality in their communities. I also want to expand our youth outreach because if we can educate them early on we will have a society with intelligent and responsible young adult.