Passionate Kelemi ready for BONELA seat
Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Friday November 29, 2013 17:27
Mmegi: Where were you born?
Kelemi: I was born in Francistown, but grew up in Mapoka, North East District.
Mmegi: How old are you?
Kelemi: I am 36-years-old
Mmegi: How many children do you have?
Kelemi: I have two adorable children, a 10-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.
Mmegi: What prompted you to be an activist?
Kelemi: The realisation that one’s rights can be limited on the basis of their HIV positive status. I found this position utterly stigmatising, discriminatory and inhumane. I then decided to spend the most productive years of my life fighting this injustice.
Mmegi: When did you start being an activist?
Kelemi: I started in 2004, when I first came into contact with BONELA. I was a secondary school teacher attending a human rights workshop organised by them. From that day on I became an activist, and I have grown over the years.
Mmegi: What do you think of the law in relation to human rights under the current constitution? For instance, does the law generally respect human rights?
Kelemi: Botswana has some really good laws, but others are outdated and do not respect the rights of citizens. The anti-sodomy laws, the recently passed public health bill and the laws regulating sex work for instance violate people’s rights to privacy and they are not enforceable. There is need to review these particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS.
Mmegi: What is the population of the transgender community in Botswana?
Kelemi: There hasn’t been a study conducted to determine the transgender population size, but as BONELA we work closely with other organisations such as Rainbow Identity that deals specifically with transgender issues. And they have a significant membership that exceeds 200 people.
Mmegi: How common are cases where parents have chosen a gender for their transgendered child and later in life the child chooses otherwise?
Kelemi: Rainbow Identity has come across a number of such cases, and I think they will be better placed to answer this question.
Mmegi: What are you doing to help transgender people who want to change identity documents to their preferred gender?
Kelemi: Again this is an area of focus for one of our sister organisations. They will be better placed to answer this one too. But let me say that BONELA offers legal aid, especially to marginalised populations including the transgender people.
Mmegi: For a long time BONELA has been lobbying for condoms in prisons. How far is the organisation with this one?
Kelemi: Efforts towards advocating for access to comprehensive prevention services in prisons are ongoing. But we made a conscious decision to halt some activities relating to this campaign while we wait for the outcome of a study that is ongoing to determine the following:
• Assess HIV prevalence and incidence among the prison population in Botswana;
• Assess Sexually Transmitted Infections (Syphilis, hepatitis B and C, HPV) prevalence among the prison population in Botswana;
• Obtain information on the extent and magnitude of TB in Botswana prisons;
• Identify risk factors associated with HIV transmission in prisons;
• Assess the quality of health services and prison conditions;
• Identify feasible and appropriate opportunities for improvement of national policies and legal frameworks.
• Recommend evidence-based strategies for a comprehensive HIV prevention and care package in Botswana prisons, in light of the identified gaps.
The study is a recommendation from the National AIDS Council. It will inform the National Policy on HIV/AIDS, and HIV and AIDS programming in Botswana prisons. The National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security and Ministry of Health with support from other stakeholders are carrying out the study in a collaborative effort.
Once we have the results of the study, we will then be able to undertake targeted interventions. We believe in evidence-based programming hence this move.
Mmegi: Are cases of termination of employment or harassment of employees in the workplace due to their HIV status still as prevalent as when BONELA was established?
Kelemi: Cases of harassment of employees in the workplace due to their actual or perceived HIV status still persist. But I should hasten to say that the numbers have slightly gone down. At present the prevalence of discriminatory tendencies is mostly increasing among domestic workers, farm workers and construction workers. We receive a significant number of cases relating to their dismissal. This is an indication that stigma and discrimination still persist. BONELA will therefore continue to raise awareness about stigma and discrimination while increasing access to legal aid for those whose rights have been violated.
Mmegi: Over the years, how has BONELA’s relationship with policy makers turned out?
Kelemi: BONELA has a great relationship with policy makers. Although we differ on a number of policy views, our relationship has been characterised by mutual respect. In fact, government respects BONELA as an organisation as well as the work we do. This is due to our consistency in terms of our messages, and addressing issues without fear or favour. Some organisations can learn some things from us and we are open to sharing those lessons. We strongly believe that good governance can only be achieved if we have a strong civil society movement that holds duty bearers accountable to deliver quality services.
Mmegi: What does BONELA do to assist people who are in hard to reach areas but in need of your services?
Kelemi: BONELA works through its network members. Our members help us reach hard to reach areas. BONELA secretariat makes a concerted effort to strengthen capacity of its network members on human rights, HIV, TB and the law. Where members cannot provide a service, they refer clients to BONELA, especially for legal aid. We also do outreaches with the legal aid programme in order to reach those areas. Funds permitting, BONELA will be operating a mobile legal aid programme in the near future.
Mmegi: In your view, what effect has BONELA brought to the general society’s perception of minority groups so far?
Kelemi: There is no doubt that BONELA forced our society to first of all acknowledge the existence of such groups in our society. And this was a significant breakthrough. The National AIDS Council for instance, through the leadership of Rre Mogae, has been calling for decriminalisation of sex work and same sex relationships. This is a more significant step. It shows that we have moved from sheer denialism to pragmatism. As BONELA we celebrate these milestones and we look forward to even bigger and better things in future.
Mmegi: To what extent do you involve the traditional leadership, Ntlo Ya Dikgosi specifically in communicating messages geared at inclusion and tolerance towards minority groups given that as a people, we have always viewed other sexuality groups other than heterosexuality as an abomination?
Kelemi: We have made a deliberate effort to make traditional leadership understand a rights-based approach to the national response to HIV/AIDS. Traditional leaders are very influential people in our society, and as such we have organised workshops to engage the traditional leadership on these issues. There have been both positive and negative responses to sexual minority issues, but we believe with time many of them will be converted. This will make the enactment of laws and policies that respect sexual minority rights much faster and easier than what is currently prevailing.
Mmegi: Does BONELA share the view that there is a need for constitutional reform? Why?
Kelemi: Yes, we strongly believe that constitutional reform is long overdue. We would like to see a constitution that enshrines second-generation rights (socio-economic rights).
This will also facilitate ratification and domestication of the International Covenant on Socio-Economic and Cultural Rights. This will enable citizens to claim their rights.