The chairperson of Re A nyalana Society, Ms Annah Morwaagole, has said lack of funds impedes the association from meeting the high demand for their services.
Speaking during a wedding ceremony of 26 couples in Natale recently, she stated that most districts wanted Re A Nyalana’s services, but lack of funds curtailed them from achieving their intended goal.
Ms Morwaagole said so far, they had managed to build a moral compassion and dignified nation by providing technical support through counselling and other related services for the couples and other family members. She said this included issues relating to propriety ownership, adoption of children and particularly the formalities and procedures necessary for realising the cohabitation.
The chairperson of the society encouraged couples to have a state of responsibility, stability and welfare of family members amongst themselves, towards their children and towards the community around them. Ms Morwaagole further said since the inception of the society, 1 150 couples in seven districts had been legally married.
She encouraged couples to promote healthy and morally appropriate social habits between them, with particular regard to presentations against HIV and AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
Mr Morwaagole said the society was founded after the idea of the community wedding to assist economically disaantaged couples to finalise their cohabitation relationships to marriages.
She mentioned that it was a non-profit making society duly registered and copy right protected under the laws of Botswana and its core aim is to discourage the practice of cohabitation in the country. Giving a word of encouragement to the couples, Natale Headman of Records Kgosi Olerile Pelaelo appreciated the beauty and happiness of couples.
Kgosi Pelaelo said the society’s help came at the right time, adding that it endeavours to encourage establishment of legally recognised marital relationships to allow harmonious governance for arms of justice.
He said most relationships had been inundated with matters of inheritances whenever one of the co-habiting partners dies without a will determining property ownership. Moreover, he said cohabitation has been linked to burning social issues such as passion killings, gender violence and HIV and AIDS.
Kgosi Pelaelo urged couples to promote and facilitate the sustenance of state of dignity, confidence, and pride among the co-habiting partners who desire to live as married couples.
Source : BOPA
Source : Botswana Daily News