07 Nov 2016

Residents call her councillor even though she is not a politician. Others refer to her as headmaster.

She is their source of hope. Ms Moroba Ntheetsang has changed lives of Mmaothate settlement’s residents since she started living permanently in their midst in 2010.

She came to the area to persue farming but it turned out farming was not her calling as she found herself running helter skelter getting everybody to learn to write their names, get an identity document and sort out their lives.

Ms Ntheetsang (50) only went as far as Form three at Tshegetsang Secondary School in Molepolole. 

She later went for a secretarial course and worked for Turbo Printing where she recently quit her job to venture into farming in Mmaothate settlement, about 13 kilometers from Monwane in the Kweneng District.

It was when she was elected in to the village development committee that she realised a high number of residents who were illiterate and living in poverty. 

“We were hiring for Ipelegeng and I realised that both the young and the old cannot read or write. They did not even have identity documents. It really touched me,” she said.

The mother of five, three girls and two boys took it upon herself to find out about the out of school education and training programme and how the people of Mmaothate could benefit from it.

Following a two weeks training at Kang on how to teach under the out of school education and training programme, Ms Nteetsang later started a community centre where the young and the old could gather to learn.

 The centre also operates as a clinic where nurses and doctors can consult patients. 

The road has not been easy for Ms Ntheetsang. 

The biggest challenge she came across in running of a community centre was lack of funds, but most importantly food for the children. 

“I would cook and bring food from my house. Sometimes I cook and teach here at the same time. It has not been easy, but my passion to see children in school kept me going,” she said.

She also appreciated help of other residents, especially neighbours who she would often frequent to ask for food or water for the children.

In 2014, Ms Ntheetsang was lucky to be among the few that were trained by UNICEF on how to teach young children. 

It was after the training that she looked for one more teacher to help her with the centre as she decided to take in toddlers and preschoolers.

 However, taking them only brought in more challenges. 

Children could not reach the center because of the long distances.

 It was then that Ms Ntheetsang voluntarily with the new teacher contributed P500 to hire a donkey cart to take children to school. 

Since 2014 to date she has been paying the donkey cart owner to collect children from their homes to school and take them back.

On the issue of identity documents, Ms Ntheetsang took it upon herself to approach the relevant office in Letlhakeng to arrange for people of Mmaothate to be assisted as they could not even benefit from the Ipelegeng programme. 

The challenge was that there was no chief in Mmaothate to even witness for the residents.

She however, arranged to take resident to villages where the chief would witness for them. 

“I remember that day I woke up early, cooked beans and packed plates too. When we got to Serinane and Mantshwabisi I was sent to Thebephatshwa to get the dates when they registered for school, to help estimate their age. About 14 people were able to get new identity documents while seven were renewing,” she said.

Though she was never a football fan, or understood what a penalty was, she started a football team for herd boys as a way of keeping them away from drinking spots after school. 

“I had to think of a ways of keeping them busy. That was when the idea of football team came to my mind,” she narrated.

 She also discovered that early pregnancies and HIV cases were too high among the youth and had to intervene. 

It was in 2014 when she started the football team which both the boys and residents liked very much. 

She bought all that was the needed with the help of another resident to support the team.

Ms Ntheetsang was manager and coach of the team. 

Though she did not know what she was doing, she was able to participate in the presidential tournaments at Mantshwabisi in 2014. 

She and her team had learned from other teams what a foul was and what they needed to do to win a match. 

She would often camp with her t

eam under trees for a game. 

All her efforts have now paid off because the team has grown, the boys have learnt how to read and write and no longer spend time drinking alcohol.

“I can proudly say that they have turned into strong, solid responsible men. Last year they were number one at Monwane Moshaweng during presidential tournaments,” she said.

Ms Ntheetsang said that since she began the community centre people’s live and attitude towards life has changed. 

People are more eager to learn and come along with their children. 

The numbers of people registering with the center have even grown after an organisation from South Korea assisted the centre with learning materials recently and provided funds to train teachers.

“People are really motivated. Right now the number of children has risen from 28 to 46 within few weeks that we received assistance from the Koreans,” she said.  ENDS