As told to Lea Gabay
Goabaone Banyaditse is a social entrepreneur, activist, and a change-maker. She shares her story here with Lea Gabay.
If
I could describe myself in one word it would be: courageous. Where does this
courage come from you may ask? To that I
want to answer that even though I may feel fearful in some situations, I don’t
let this feeling stop me from getting things done.
New opportunities on the horizon
I didn’t stop there. I was hungry for more opportunities to learn, collaborate, and exchange with other community organizers and activists, in particular female leaders. Little did I know that I would have a chance to do so in July 2017 by being selected to represent Botswana among 25 other young women who are influential change-makers in their countries and are also recognized to be Africa's promising young women leaders by Moremi Initiative for Young Women's Leadership in Africa.
Goabaone Banyaditse is a social entrepreneur, activist, and a change-maker. She shares her story here with Lea Gabay.
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| Goabaone Banyaditse |
I grew up in Gaborone in Botswana and have always lived in a full household with extended
family members. My dad worked for a diamond mining company while my mum was
pursuing her studies in accounting. During that time, he was the sole
breadwinner. Thanks to his job, we were able to live a comfortable life. All of
that changed, however, when my dad passed away some years ago. We suddenly
found ourselves on our own, which meant that my mother had to step into the
role of breadwinner in order to provide for us.
This meant that she had to
abruptly end her studies and look for ways to take care of us. I witnessed her struggles in this new role. I
realize now that had she been empowered to manage her finances and make her own
decisions, she would have perhaps made different choices that would have
allowed us to lead a more financially stable life. Seeing my mother experience hardship to
support her family thus made me more aware of the difficulties that women in
rural communities face when trying to assert themselves. It made me wonder why
this kept happening.
First steps into
activism
As
I became older and relocated from Gaborone to a village after my mum remarried,
I began to notice acute differences in treatment between men and women in rural
communities. It seemed that men were generally more valued and had greater
freedom to work and study, whereas women were expected to stay at home and
raise a family. Further, many of these women were subjected to gender-based
violence and HIV infections and were financially insecure due to limited
education and lack of job opportunities. It distressed me deeply to know that very
little was being done to change this situation so much so that I decided that I
could no longer ignore it. It was time to take action.
Incidentally, my first fore into activism
happened when I was a student at the university: One day a classmate informed me that she knew of another
classmate who had been raped and impregnated by her ex-boyfriend. She was an
orphan from a less-privileged family and she did not have electricity or water
at her home. When I found out about her situation, I approached her and tried to help her as much
as I could, offering for her to move in with me temporarily so that she could
feel safe. During that time, I helped
her to complete her academic assignments and provided her with emotional and
financial support.
From that moment on, I
knew that I had found my calling. I wanted to engage in work that would lift up
the voices of women and youth from marginalized communities, this would include
those in the urban areas like my former classmate just for as long as they are
in need. In order to move forward with
my goal, I increasingly started to get involved in volunteer work and
participated in a variety of projects after graduating from university.
One
example of this was when I helped to coordinate a staff volunteerism initiative
called Collaborating for a Cause (CFC) as an intern at an international rough
diamond sales company in 2016. Its aim was to use
community engagement to unite employees despite their cultural differences. We
led several volunteerism projects, but our most impactful project to date was when
we collected donations of nappies to
six hospitals with neonatal intensive care units across Botswana to relieve the
economic burden on mothers who had recently given birth and to restore the
dignity of disadvantaged women and girls. The company also made donations of
school uniforms and basic toiletries to give to underserved students.
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| I wrote those last year before I left, to remind myself why I have to endure though it all. |
New opportunities on the horizon
I didn’t stop there. I was hungry for more opportunities to learn, collaborate, and exchange with other community organizers and activists, in particular female leaders. Little did I know that I would have a chance to do so in July 2017 by being selected to represent Botswana among 25 other young women who are influential change-makers in their countries and are also recognized to be Africa's promising young women leaders by Moremi Initiative for Young Women's Leadership in Africa.
A year later, I had yet
another chance to engage with other female activists in March 2018 at the 62nd
session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) at the United Nations
Headquarters in New York which focuses on empowering rural women and girls. It
was my dream to attend and meet other female grassroots leaders who are equally
passionate about women’s rights and gender equality. I had hoped that I would
receive some kind of financial support to participate in this conference.
Unfortunately, there was none. I was thus left with no other alternative but to
use my own savings and resign from my internship. While I considered the repercussions
of leaving, I knew that I wanted to take this risk. So, I booked my flight and
traveled on my own to New York. I didn’t know what to expect once I got there,
having not made any kind of preparations for my trip. I was confident, though,
that everything would work out, and indeed, it did. I connected with
participants on my way to the conference who offered to share accommodations
with me. I was even invited on a panel to talk about my projects and the
situation of women in Botswana, and I made contact with influential women in
the field of entrepreneurship and development.
Developing my own social
enterprise
CSW62 played a pivotal role in encouraging me to contribute to my
community through my own means: It gave me the confidence to establish my own
social enterprise, Like Pebbles, after my return to Botswana. Like Pebbles is a
for-profit social enterprise that serves rural communities of the developing
world through engaging impact investors to co-create and consume ecotourism to
empower and sustain the livelihoods of marginalized rural communities. To this
end, the enterprise trains these communities
in basic business skills in order to effectively help them to plan, execute,
and manage their own small-medium ecotourism businesses, which are
strategically setup to serve the visiting tourists while generating employment
and income for the community.
I consider Like Pebbles to be just the beginning of
my journey. I have so many other things that I would like to do: My long term plans and aspirations include
pursuing a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development, which will enable me to
work closely with international development organizations such as the United
Nations, African Union Commission, and World Bank. I also aim to advance my
business model and replicate it by expanding the scope of Like Pebbles to
empower indigenous people in other countries and continue to advocate for
gender equality and sustainable enterprises as a solution to unemployment in
other developing countries.
I would like to end by saying that I draw my inspiration from being the first born in my family. I strive to be a good role model for my siblings, showing them that no matter what life throws at you, it is possible to defy all odds in order to lead the kind of life that you had planned for yourself. Indeed, as long as you set your mind to your goal and go after it full force, anything is attainable.
I would like to end by saying that I draw my inspiration from being the first born in my family. I strive to be a good role model for my siblings, showing them that no matter what life throws at you, it is possible to defy all odds in order to lead the kind of life that you had planned for yourself. Indeed, as long as you set your mind to your goal and go after it full force, anything is attainable.
