NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGO's) TRAINED ON DEMOCRACY

Seventeen members of different Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) are participating in a four-day training of trainers workshop on constitutionalism and democratization in Lesotho at the Catholic Training Center in Mafeteng. The workshop started on Monday 30 September,2002. In an interview with the Lesotho Council of Non-governmental Organizations (LCN) democracy and human rights commission Coordinator; Mr. Tsebo Mats'asa, said there is a need to educate the public on issues related to democracy to enable them to know their rights in democratic governance.

Mr. Mats'asa said LCN through its commission of democracy and human rights organized the workshop after it realized that there is lack of knowledge regarding democracy and human rights amongst the community. He said, at the end of the workshop participants are expected to visit communities and sensitize them on their rights and democracy so that they can take part in developmental activities with a clear understanding.

He said, the commission conducted a series of workshops in the 21 constituencies before the general elections in May to assess the public's knowledge on democracy and the commission realized that people need to be empowered with issues related to democracy and human right. One of the participants, Mr. Lira Theko from Transformation Resource Center said it is the responsibility of every member of the public to know their rights in order to take part in activities that are meant to develop the nation.

He said they would visit the public to empower them as they expect more information to come from the public so as to assess their knowledge on the two issues. ''In a democratic governance every person should know his rights and the part he should play to develop the country,'' he said. The purpose of the workshop, which ends on Thursday, is to build capacity of NGO's on democracy and human rights through training and coordination. The Electoral Institute of South Africa, which is a partner of LCN in democracy and human rights process, funded the workshop.

01 October,2002