By Seleoe Nonyane
The Face of Lesotho (FOL) is bringing together past and present winners of the annual contest under one umbrella to encourage girls across the country to reach their full potential.
This is being done under the banner of the Face of Lesotho Sisterhood 2023.
FOL is the second biggest national beauty pageant after Miss Lesotho, registered under the Beauty Pageants Association of Lesotho.
Its purpose is to educate young people in life skills, promote local talent and have an aggressive presence in different activities in the country.
The executive director of FOL, Lintle Setho, says the initiative will serve as a platform to motivate and encourage girls to reach their full potential.
He said the main focus in the Sisterhood is to impart self-acceptance and highlight the needs of young girls in the FOL queens’ respective communities. The needs include moral and mental support, as well as provision of sanitary towels.
“We have realised that girls are the most powerful members of society and, if properly guided, Lesotho can become a better place, especially if they are enlightened on issues like child marriages, teenage pregnancies and rape.
“Since we are doing this in a world where the unemployment rate is escalating rapidly, the Sisterhood will also encourage young girls to venture into entrepreneurship beyond areas mainly regarded as female dominated such as the fashion and beauty industry,” Setho noted.
He said the Sisterhood 2023 draws its strength primarily from the adage that ‘unity is power’, which means positive results when people come together for a common cause.
“There is really no better time than now; our world demands us to be hands on, whether we like it or not.”
Setho added under his directorship, FOL has had a number of brilliant beauty queens since 2019. He however, lamented the fact that the advent of Covid-19 had scuppered the organisation’s operations.
The pandemic also limited the title holders from fully implementing their core organisational objectives which put a premium on humanitarianism, benevolence, culture and the promotion of tourism in the country.
“Even though we did try our best to overcome adversities, we could not make any significant inroads in the communities we had targeted.
“It has been quite a difficult time for us because we are experiencing a dip in income generation. However, we are doing our best to find solutions,” he said.
The 11th coronation of the Face of Lesotho winner was on March 11 2023; Motšelisi Rakhatla walked away with the honours.
Rakhatla this week commenced her rehabilitation and motivation seminar for sex workers, an initiative aimed at engaging, motivating and providing self-development coaching to women who practise sex work to survive.
