Imelda Molokomme

“My strength also comes from the fact that I still want to work and share what I have with other people so we all can have better lives”

“In those days the gender agenda was still very foreign but since it was something within me when the time came to advance it, there was no turning back”

“In terms of numbers we were almost equal but men had an upper hand and louder voices. It was like women didn’t exist. And since I was teaching in the rural areas I also interacted a lot with the local women where I realized that women were carrying more than enough on their shoulders”

“When I came back home for my secondary school in Mochudi I was the only girl in a class of seven and fortunately or unfortunately I happened to be the most intelligent. This made me a subject of talk and ridicule by the boys who were somehow bitter that they were being overshadowed by a girl. It was then that I realized it was sometimes an issue to be a girl”

“I later asked my father why he chose to migrate with me of all his children and he told me he had seen that I was strong and would grow up to be even stronger”

“For us to raise the girl child at the same level in rural and urban areas, we need to give them the chance to speak for themselves, to tell us what they need, their choices and what their visionary paths are”

“society today should rather dissect the culture to examine whether it advantages or disadvantages the girl child. There is need to educate the girl child, and the right approach to this will nurture girls with the right self-esteem and resourcefulness, she said.”

“I want us not to quarrel with this culture, we must appreciate it because after all a nation without a culture is a lost nation”

“there have been historical imbalances from the traditional socialisation of boys and girls under which the boy child was socialised to be more economically empowered.However, the pioneer gender activist warned against any attempts at tinkering with the status quo”

“"Connect girls and inspire them for the future.”