Cynthia’s Counselling and Empowerment Trust
Providing hope and care for the living through participatory partnership with the community.
Cynthia’s Counselling and Empowerment Centre Trust (Cynthia’s Child care) is a Community based Organisation (CBO) in Good Hope Sub-District originally registered in 2007 and re-registered in March 2021. Its mandate is to provide care and support for people affected and infected by HIV, and to promote positive behaviours in the targeted villages to reduce new HIV infections among adolescent girls, young women (AGYW), adolescent boys and young adults.
Our story begins with our initiator Cynthia Leshomo, who was a HIV/AIDS activist and educator as she grew up as a young lady in the village Malokaganyane living with HIV/AIDS with a burning desire to raise awareness as well as to advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS mainly focusing on children orphaned by parents who were infected and affected by the virus.
Cynthia went on to get exposure for her goal to join Miss Stigma Free in 2005 and was crowned the winner, this led to her advocating to have a centre for children in her village and the surrounding areas for them to be fed and have an area for studying. She was supported by her mother Keneilwe Leshomo alongside her sister Mercy Leshomo who is the founder of Cynthia’s child care and counselling centre trust. It was then registered in May 2007 after the passing of Cynthia Leshomo.
In an interview the founder Mercy Leshomo stated that “the house in which she lived is now a museum call centre, a counselling centre, a clinic, a meeting place and a refuge for so many people”.
Cynthia’s has trained and qualified staff. The Program Coordinator has a Certificate in Accounting and Business Studies and has completed various courses in related areas such as M&E, and has done courses on HIV prevention and behaviour change and counselling with TASO in Uganda, project management, proposal writing and others. She has served in a number of organizations such as House of Hope Trust, Botswana Council for Refugees and Flying Mission. This experience will be vital for the effective implementation and monitoring of project related activities.
Program Coordinator
Finance Admin Officer
Data Monitoring Officer
Project Officer
Cynthia’s Counselling and Empowerment Centre Trust has a governing board of five members who represent the six villages, and 5 ex-officio members. See table below for the list of board members:
The organization’s catchment areas include nine villages in the Good Hope Sub-District in the Southern District of Botswana. The Good Hope Sub-District is one of the four sub-districts that comprise Botswana’s Southern District whose headquarters are in Kanye. Good Hope is bordered in the north by Kanye Sub-District, to the east by Lobatse Town Council, to the west by Kgalagadi District, and to the south by South Africa. We work in the following villages: