By Matṧeliso Phulane
The executive director of Network for Solidarity, Empowerment and Transformation for All (NewSETA) Moeketsi Kali says the organisation aims to enlighten communities in Leribe’s industrial town of Maputsoe on how to go about addressing issues that affect them.
Kali says the organization was established to fight for human rights, good governance and democracy. It is informed by the public’s need to know who to consult when they need developments.
He noted that there is a big crisis of pollution around Maputsoe town, yet no one seems to be taking any responsibility to combat it. Apart from that, there has been shortage of water since 2015, and the community needs to know who is responsible for this matter and what they are doing to correct it.
“With this project, we are going to work together with the community councillors and members of the parliament to educate the community about the roles and responsibilities of each party, so that they could have a clear information about their duties before holding them accountable,” Kali said.
He added that they will also host village gatherings with the funds they received from TRC. He said they will urge the community to nominate their representative committees to represent them in the solution of their issues.
Kali said this during the signing of contracts with the Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) in Maseru last week, through the latter’s Small Projects Fund (SPF) also known as “Sea le Methati Project”, which is aimed at funding small Community Based Organizations (CBOs).
TRC allocated a total amount of M 270 000 to five non-government organisations, namely African Development in Lesotho (AFDeL) which received M60, 000, Shepard Watch M30,000, Pnut Global Consultancy Academy (PGC Academy) M60,000, Survivors of Lesotho Dams (SOLD) M60,000 and Network for Solidarity, Empowerment and Transformation for All (NewSETA) which received M60,000.
The SPF project is meant to capacitate the CBO through small grants to demand service delivery and accountability from government, policy makers and service providers. The five CBOs, among others, focus on; improving the participation of affected communities by capital project in resettlement and compensation initiatives, capacitating animal herders in protection of integrated catchment management and research on socio-economic problems faced by communities within the TRC project sites.
On behalf of the organisations, the representative of SOLD, Mothusi Seqhee said they feel lucky to have been chosen from among other applicants as they fulfilled what was required by TRC after it man an announcement for organisations to apply.
He said as organisations, they encounter the same challenges as TRC while serving the communities, as it is one of the main organisations which fights for human rights. To this effect, TRC has extended its outreach in order to help where it could not reach.
Seqhea promised that the organisations will use the funds efficiently to perform the intended duties in line with their contract agreement.
Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) is an ecumenical resource Centre that advocates for justice, peace and participatory development. Its key function is to support the centre’s programmatic work, providing leadership and direction, coordinating activities and supervising work.
Its coordination activities include: Human Resource Management, Evaluation, Development, Remuneration Donor and Stakeholder Relations.
