Sentebale is a small, flexible, innovative organisation seeking to achieve the highest impact and value for money with every pound they spend. This charity movement help children, young people, and their families achieve financial security and independence by providing a variety of assistance, skills, and development opportunities to assist them in earning money and pursuing professional paths.

Social asset building is one of the strategies in which trained mentors meet with groups of adolescent females on a regular basis to talk about their health, peer pressure, economic hardship, youth unemployment, and other issues. People collaborate to develop evidence-based solutions that ensure they are supported, empowered, and capable of thriving.

What are the outcomes

• Improved possibilities for young people to complete formal education and develop new life skills benefit them.
• Young people are better able to support themselves economically in their communities.
• Young people devise novel approaches to achieving long-term economic prosperity for themselves and their communities.

 Sentebale in an accountable and transparent  manner  published an Annual Report and Audited Accounts, documenting our progress and financial health across  three registered entities in Lesotho, Botswana and the UK. Sentebale has made a  difference  over the years.

Prince Harry has earned the respect of Africans not because he is a Prince but because he has proven that he believes African children deserved to live. Prince Harry knew even at that tender age used his platform to empower children in Lesotho. He knew that partnering with Africans to bring solutions was essential for the success of the charity. This is what leadership of the 21st century looks like.

SENTEBALE OUTCOMES

Young people benefit from improved opportunities to complete formal education and learn new life skills.  Young people are more able to economically support themselves within their communities. Young people find innovative ways to work towards sustainable economic wellbeing for themselves and within their communities.

Keineetse Cana Osupile and I’m from Molalatau village in the Bobirwa District, in Botswana. A DREAMS MENTOR, BOTSWANA

“I work as a DREAMS mentor. I learnt that Sentebale would be implementing the DREAMS programme and I chose to apply because of my passions in volunteering and contributing positively to my community and my career development. DREAMS is a movement that empowers adolescent girls and young women to be bold, healthy, and reach their goals, resulting in an empowered AIDS-free generation. In the Bobirwa District young women and girls face serious issues of high HIV and AIDS infections, gender-based violence, and unwanted and unintended pregnancy, which can lead to dropping out of school and unemployment.

The DREAMS project implements safe spaces where girls and young women benefit from mentorship and life skills education. Girls and young women learn about staying safe and healthy, get advice on financial literacy and business skills, and are linked to relevant service providers to get more assistance, especially clinical sexual reproductive health services. The programme trained me to develop self-confidence. Before becoming a mentor, I suffered from stage fright and difficulty speaking in large crowds and gatherings. Now I am a changed person. I believe in myself and conduct public speaking sessions with full confidence, without fear. I can conduct community kgotla meetings, health talks as well as safe spaces facilitation, without thinking negatively about myself.

I serve as a role model to the young women and girls I work with. My most memorable moments, that make my day, are the team building activities where the DREAM Girls faces light up. I hear their laughter and they freely engage in conversation. I would like to encourage my fellow peers to be focused, determined and empowered – by being active in community projects doors and opportunities can open for them. SUCCESS STORY I would like to encourage my fellow peers to be focused, determined and empowered – by being active in community projects doors and opportunities can open for them. I would like to encourage my fellow peers to be focused, determined and empowered – by being active in community projects doors and opportunities can open for them.”

KEINEESTE DREAMS MENTOR MY WORK AS A DREAMS MENTOR, BOTSWANA DREAMS is a movement that empowers adolescent girls and young women to be bold, healthy, and reach their goals, leading to an empowered AIDS-free generation.

Success Story of Sentebale Dreams Program

MEET THOBO, DREAMS GIRL, BOTSWANA My name is Thobo Mothuti, I am an enthusiastic and diligent Motswapong lady aged 23 years from Bobirwa District in Botswana.

“I am a shareholder at Tholef investment Pty Ltd presently and in possession of a Junior Certificate Education (Form 3). I am currently also engaged as a volunteer at the Government’s Tirelo Sechaba (National Service) programme in Borotsi Primary School in Bobonong. There are several challenges that us adolescent girls and young women face, such as lack of funds to start up our dream business ideas, peer pressure, alcohol, and drug abuse to mention a few. Fortunately for us in the Bobirwa District, DREAMS has provided us with an opportunity to better tackle those challenges.

Safe spaces are very impactful as we (DREAM Girls) can interact, share our experience and ideas in a free environment without fear of being judged or ridiculed. Through safe spaces and my mentors support, I have acquired a lot of survival skills including building my self-confidence. Before joining Sentebale’s DREAMS programme, I was an extremely shy girl, unable to share my problems or voice out my opinions, but with time, I noticed my confidence dramatically improving.

Currently, I feel my confidence and self-esteem is at its best, both during safe spaces, at work and elsewhere. We have also been given sessions on money management, including the importance of budgeting as well as saving. These skills now help me to manage my funds efficiently by drawing up a spending plan before the actual spending happens, something I wasn’t accustomed to before. With the way things are going, I am very positive that my life is indeed on the best track, and I am not sceptical about my future anymore as I spend wisely, budget, and save. My favourite thing to do during safe spaces is to socialise and gain knowledge from others. I would like to advise other adolescent girls and young women to attend safe spaces, open-up during sessions, and never to give up in life regardless of the situation they are facing.

I would like to advise other adolescent girls and young women to attend safe spaces, open-up during sessions and never to give up in life regardless of the situation they are facing.” THOBO DREAMS GIRL

ACHIEVEMENTS IN LESOTHO & BOTSWANA

WORTH is a micro-banking programme which empowers women to lift themselves and each other out of poverty. Worth’s model brings women and older girls together in groups of 20 to 25 to save money, access credit, and start their own businesses. Once the groups are set up, they also become a platform for women to talk about other issues that affect them including those around health and human rights.

In Lesotho, we delivered secondary school bursaries and education subsidies to 223 young people and linked many to the Ministry of Social Development’s Scholarship Programme where they will continue to receive funding for their education. Peer educators ran Worth Groups to 613 adolescent girls and young women where 64 new businesses were established. Peer educators and our partners worked with households to improve food insecurity by developing skills and cost-effective methods to grow and maintain vegetables across three districts in Lesotho. As part of the DREAMS programme, DREAMS mentors ran safe space sessions to over 370 girls and young women aged between 20 to 24 years

The DREAMS movement

The DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) collaboration is a sizeable public-private initiative aiming at lowering HIV rates among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in the nations with the highest HIV prevalence. DREAMS was launched on World AIDS Day 2014. USAID commenced operations in ten countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2015: eSwatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These nations were responsible for roughly half of all new HIV infections among AGYW worldwide.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women account for 74% of new HIV infections, and almost 1,000 AGYW are infected with HIV every day. Their vulnerability to HIV and a life not lived to its full potential is exacerbated by social isolation, poverty, discriminatory cultural norms, orphan hood, gender-based violence, and inadequate schooling. The DREAMS alliance extends beyond individual health programs to address these issues, intending to eradicate AIDS by 2030 as a Sustainable Development Goal. Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Rwanda, and Namibia joined DREAMS as new nations in 2017. South Sudan began implementing two DREAMS packages of services, Violence Prevention and Economic Strengthening, in 2020.

The primary goal of the DREAMS core package is to:

• Youth-friendly reproductive health care and social asset building empower teenage girls and young women and reduce risk.
• Social protection (education subsidies, a combination of socioeconomic initiatives) and parent/caregiver programs help build families.