EU week 2013
TED display at Pioneer Mall
EU- quiz during opening ceremony
Interview of TED for TV
Palesa speaking with interested person
Kanalelo children
The winning team
Kananelo Deaf Children, TED Partner, won EU caps,
bags and vouchers to buy school uniforms
from LCS Store
To celebrate the EU Day 9 May 2013, the EU Delegation to Lesotho marked the day with a week of activities in which the EU invited organisations and associations they partner with to present themselves at the Pioneer Mall in Maseru. The exhibition took place from 3 to 8 May 2013, celebrated under the motto "Civil Society, our partner.
During the 6 days, Technologies for Economic Development (TED) displayed its portfolio at the Pioneer Mall, and brought an ECO ZOOM improved cook stove, an Amalooloo-Toilet, a WASH United star giant photo made from cardboard, two biogas models and samples of how to recycle or reuse waste. TED thus could show and explain the process of biogas production and waste water treatment, hygiene education, energy efficient stoves, solar lights and training, capacity building and consultancy on sanitation, energy and environmental protection. TED team was made up of Thabiso Mokhachane, Palesa Moiketsi, Nthakoana Mothae, Refiloe Sepepane and Hannah Jucknischke who took turns in representing TED at the stall.
The display started on 03 May around lunch time while the exhibition was officially opened at 16pm by the EU Ambassador Dr. Hans Duynhouwer, who emphasized the importance of the partnership between EU and Civil Society Organisations. Then, a quiz was offered to the audience in which the facilitator asked questions with two possible answers. To indicate their answer, participants moved their previously distributed EU flags up or down. In several rounds, winners were identified and were given an EU bag containing a notebook, a cap and a pen. The EU quiz was enrolled a couple of times, and a choir sang on behalf of the EU.
After the opening, TED’s director Mantopi Lebofa was interviewed by a TV team organised by EU to provide a brief overview of what TED does; particularly, she described the EU funded 5-year project by showing how TED’s displayed products were going to be part of the project bringing together biogas systems with Amalooloo toilets and school gardens, and funny hygiene education for Child Friendly and Gender Sensitive School Sanitation in 40 schools across the country, supported by the EU.
At TED’s stall, people on their way to shops in the mall stopped because they were attracted by TED’s presentations. Questions were answered by TED team-members, interests in the techniques and in partnerships were discussed and contacts were exchanged. As the TED team was in contact with many people, more visitors than usual are expected in the TED office to follow up on the dialogues.
On Saturday 4 May, additionally to the ongoing exhibition at the Pioneer Mall, an activity day was held on the Kick4Life grounds. This was organized for children to get in a fun way into contact with EU and its partners. The day started with a football tournament. This took the whole morning to get enrolled as there were 6 teams. The teams were named after popular European national football teams like Spain, Germany, Italy, Denmark, France and Portugal.
At lunchtime, the children from Kanalelo Center for the Deaf that works very closely with TED in hygiene education and advocacy for water and sanitation presented their drama explaining the correlation between the long way to fetch water and the fear of sexual abuse. They showed why it is important to protect the water and to take care of the sanitation systems to prevent contamination of water sources. That was demonstrated through a play showing how herd boys defecating in wells if water wells are not protected. The drama also demonstrated how girls get sexually abused, if wells where they are bound to get water from are far, as they walk long distances and are vulnerable to rape.
During the play, the children in the audience listened and watched carefully. After the theatre play, the finals of the football tournament took place. In this match, Spain beat Germany 1:0 and was declared the winner.
In the end, the winner of the tournament got medals. The child dancing nicest was rewarded with a cap. The bet about the football tournament was won by two pupils from Kanalelo Centre for the Deaf, who received vouchers worth M200 and M500 for school uniform items like shirts or pairs of socks from Life Comfort Solutions (LCS) retail and furniture store.
