BONU celebrates nurses day
Amid numerous challenges that have dogged the sector for years, the Botswana Nurses Union (BONU) will celebrate International Nurse’s day today, 12th May 2021 in Gaborone under the theme, ‘A voice to lead.’
According to BONU President, Obonolo Rahube, nurses continue to face challenges of shortage of staff, saying the situation has worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are thin on the ground while graduate nurses are roaming the streets,” he complained, adding that other challenges include lack of enough accommodation and staff houses that are in a dilapidated state.
During this era of the Covid 19 pandemic, he has
decried the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in clinics and hospitals, saying such facilities were even running short of face masks. With around 8000 nurses currently in the public service, he has called on government to invest in human personnel because
departments such as Oncology, Paediatrics and Anaesthetics lack trained nurses. BONU has been celebrating nurse’s day annually with the last celebration held in 2019 and funded by Government through Ministry of Health and Wellness for up to 600k for the awards.
to ensure the protection of the rights of queer persons.The backdrop of these binary systems have replicated in the way civil society is enforcing and upholding heteronormative and patriarchal ways of working that continuously exclude women and particularly queer women. In one part, LGBTQ human rights work is centered around MSM/gay and bisexual men due to HIV interventions targeted at “key populations” and donor mandates that prescribe and shape who and how access is determined, which negates the needs of LBQ women. Secondly, the larger shrinking space for civil society has continued the marginalisation of LBQ women as they become the least prioritised in all aspects with the denial of the intersectionalities that connect them to many of the causes in the organising landscape. This has oftentimes seen the exclusion of LBQ women from political, socio-economic spaces. The lack of representation and inclusive consultation has resulted in LBQ women being left out when it comes to targeted sexual rights initiatives of LBQ women and shaping the human rights discourse.
With that, how do we support and change the narrative? Strengthening people, communities and movements through leadership development to be in a position to self organise, to connect to each other, to belong and inspire movements. Our work sees LGBTIQ+ community as beneficiaries of transformation, but does not end there: LGBTIQ people in Botswana are more than consumers, they lead and contribute to change. We see this play out in the City of Francistown, where a collective of LBQ women convened to form a support group. Through their leadership and support from LEGABIBO, this has expanded into a second drop in center for LGBTIQ individuals providing safe space and community. We see LEGABIBO supporting several individuals and collectives who continue to work towards socioeconomic, legal and justice for sexual and gender minorities. These include diverse groups such as Black Queer DocX who are an autonomous collective of black and queer feminists based in Gaborone, Botswana, who work towards societal transformation and the development of more inclusive, just and holistic communities through research, documentation and advocacy and knowledge sharing to ensure inclusion of LBQ women. The Masakhane Collective who develop and implement advocacy work, conduct research and knowledge creation on LBQ inclusion. And then there is the Banana Club which focuses on mental health and creating safe spaces LGBTIQ persons.
Learning platforms and knowledge management are crucial for meaningful and impactful work. LEGABIBO has been involved and led several researches in-country and regionally. We have participated in the development of reports for the Universal Periodic Review, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.
We need to support LBQ women who work in the arts and are involved in socio-economic initiatives by providing resources and support to ensure that we enhance their capacity and contribute to network and movement building of women in these sectors. We need to address internalised queerphobia of queer motherhood and bisexual women in relationships and from the LGBTIQ community itself, and further explore the role that heteronormativity plays in influencing queer relations and the translation of violence that is a byproduct of heteronormative norms.
We need to approach these initiatives through consultative engagements with LBQ women by creating spaces that will push for conversations that unpack gender ideology and misconceptions in Botswana. These include consciousness raising conversations, convenings with community leaders and media entities, collaborations with skills development agencies, and the public.