THE SADC GENDER PROTOCOL SUMMIT 2014 LEADERSHIP (LESOTHO, MASERU SUN, 14-16/04/2014 ) PRESENTER’S NAME: TIEANG SEFALI PLEASE USE PHOTOGRAPHS, QUOTES AND ANY OTHER VISUALS YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR PRESENTATION MORE ENGAGING. 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

SYNOPSIS Before I became a leader, I thought that it’s only men who can have final decisions and be leaders. Since I have been a gender aware leader, I understand that women are very powerful, they can have a say and be leaders. I ensured that men understand that women are not children and can make right decisions. There was a family which had no child for fifteen years. The man thought that it was the woman who had a problem of having children, he took his wife to different doctors including traditional doctors but there was no solution, so because of that the man started insulting his wife calling her a man. I approached that family, talked to them and made them understand that it is their responsibility to support each other and I advised them to go the clinic. Both of them went to the clinic to see whether it was a man or a woman who had a problem. Unfortunately it was a man who had a problem but luckily enough he got a treatment for six months. He has two sons now, the first one is nine years old while second born is four years old. Really as for now it is a peaceful family.

OBJECTIVES  To ensure that many women are leading the committees  To ensure that women are leading associations  To ensure that women bare children at health centres  To ensure that there is a women’s community association  To ensure that gender based violence is reduced in the community 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

BACKGROUND 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA I attended the gender training of trainers for the Non- formal Education on Risk Reduction and Avoidance Skills for herd boys. After that I have been elected to be a councillor at Ts’ana-Talana Community Council where I have been a Gender Champion, working with other councillors to ensure that women are represented in their committees.

KEY ACTIVITIES 16 days of activism campaign held on the 7 th /12/2013 Women’s month celebration held on the 31 st /08/2013 HIV/AIDS day celebration Peace keeping and conflict resolution campaign on the 28 th /03/2014 Tree plantingon the on the 4 th /2013 Women empowerment forum held on the 9 th /05/ /50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

CHALLENGES Changing the way people think and do things, especially those living in rural areas, was a major challenge, they keep asking “Do you want to break our families or you want to work with women only”, so it seemed as if I preferred working with women than men. To overcome this, public gatherings were held rapidly, some of the issues by doing dramas. Women were not participating at public gatherings. To address this, women were empowered and shown their importance by examples of the associations and committees they lead. Men had lack of knowledge and understanding of gender issues and believed that women could not be good leaders. In addressing this challenge they were taught about gender issues and shown examples of the existing female ministers, that women if given enough support can be good leaders. 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

RESULTS Change at the individual level Championing gender has changed my life in making gender sensitive decisions when working with the public and it helped me to be responsible at the community. Further more it assisted me with humility and empathy. Moreover it also helped me to lead by example with transparency and honesty. 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

RESULTS Change at institutional level* I formed a gender committee in the council and from the report of each and every councillor gender issues are included, and the peoples are involved in council planning process. 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

RESULTS Change at the community level * I have formed gender youth group which makes the drama about gender issues to the community and I also formed women and men’s committee for gender issues lastly they made fun walk on 28/03/14 about gender base violence and conflict resolutions in the community. Both two committees helped to implement gender issues e.g. it helped me to protect children who were abused by their parents and to resolve conflicts between eight villages. We went around the community to promote human rights for all and to empower women economically by increasing the number of associations where 98% are women and also are leaders. 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

LESSON LEARNED AND INNOVATION We learned that it is important that women are empowered because of the major roles they play in the communities. e.g. support groups and community associations women are empowered through capacity building, and are also encouraged to take leadership positions, they are also empowered by holding women’s forums 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

SUSTAINABILITY AND REPLICATION There should be budget for gender activities. It can be cascaded to other councils by holding competitions on gender based violence and HIV/AIDS issues with other councils, thereby sharing challenges and experiences. 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA

Next steps My next plan is to ensure that members from the community committees and associations that I formed will represent their respective committees and associations in the next summit. It is also my plan that all women and men in the entire electoral division are members to these committees and associations 50/50 BY 2015: DEMANDING A STRONG POST 2015 AGENDA