Motataisi - A long awaited story for Lesotho

By Crosbey Mwanza –Media specialist (Mesaru, Lesotho)

Motataisi - referred to in English as the guider has set foot in Lesotho to do just that – Guide. The question that pops up is guide who and in what? The general answer is to guide anyone needing to meet the one important facet of human life, which is, to seek knowledge.

MOTATAISI - the new model of information intake being introduced in Lesotho, is not based on command and but on connection and collaboration. Through this initiative the Absolute Personal Responsibility –APR – principle will be ignited to energize communities to realize that they have to solve their own personal problems using their resources and control, supported by external resources and expertise.  

The inherent realization propelling MOTATAISI into this participatory mode is informed by the fact that it is human nature to see what you don’t have in your life along with celebrating all the good you do have. Relating this to national level practice, it is a common factor that everyone focuses on all the weaknesses rather than developing the strengths.

However to benefit from MOTATAISI, the communities must be open to learn from the experiences of others, in order to shorten the learning curve – hence the connection and collaboration.

Lessons learnt from current practices show that very little has been done to improve livelihoods especially for those living in rural communities, thus reducing Lesotho to a basket case. These has resulted into a widespread loss of confidence by people to even do things they can manage, leaving the responsibility to external assistance especially governments. When people lose their confidence there is a tendency to play victim rather than step up to the challenge.  

The introduction of MOTATAISI IS DESIGNED TO CHANGE ALL THIS AND USHER IN A NEW MINDSET TO DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND VIEW DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES OF SELF AND COUNTRY DIFFERENTLY.

MOTATAISI with your assistance will achieve for Lesotho new ways for people especially the youth, physically and mentally disadvantaged people in their geographic communities to:-

 Through MOTATAISI – help the disadvantaged population communicate interactively and  better understand one another, share know-how and generate passion in solving problems pertaining to their geographic communities;

 Through MOTATAISI – assist the disadvantaged communities use information, news and academic resources and imagine their collective possibilities as communities, and to set and reach common community goals;

 Through MOTATAISI - dig for academic information, news and act on it , including new ways to collect, prepare and distribute information that reveals hard-to-know facts, identifies common problems, clarifies geographic community issues or points out practical courses of action;

Stated simply, the MOTATAISI initiative is to be introduced to ignite the moribund life in rural communities across Lesotho, and can be appropriately said to be informed by the words of Ghandi-“be the change you want to see in the world.”

Therefore, through the use of Motataisi, we can be able to collect and build Lesotho content that:-

 With the use of MOTATAISI - build capacity for community members and interested groups to find strategies to deal and overcome situations responsible for reducing their life expectancies such as poverty, disease and underdevelopment.

 With the use of MOTATAISI - facilitate networking of community organizations by enabling them to access up to date information to improve their livelihoods and learn possible income-generating activities.

 With the Use of MOTATAISI - scale up the promotion of locally produced agricultural and other products for the market and also to create opportunities to improve nutrition necessary to give their bodies fighting chances against debilitating situations.

Thus MOTATAISI seeks to bestir the people into an awareness of their own condition, provide inspiration for their thoughts and rouse them to pursue their true interests.