Youth week celebrations

 

Friday April 5th -Sunday April 14th is time to celebrate Victorian Youth Week this year. I will be participating in one of the many Africa Day Australia activities that will be going on as we celebrate the young people around us. I cant wait to meet with everyone and be among the young minds of Victoria. Hope to see you there.

When: Saturday 13th April 12:30- 1630

Where: Library at the Dock , 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands Vic 3008

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Losika Writes at ABC Australia!!!

“A man’s gift makes room for him, And brings him before great men.” – Proverbs 18:16

Losika Writes has truly opened many a door for me and has brought me before great men, and women hehe. I have had the opportunity to go to ABC Australia Melbourne studios to not only talk about my passion project of ensuring that every African child growing up in the diaspora has books in their native language, but to also talk about important issues of motherhood and general practice. I am looking forward to where all this leads and hoping the universe guides me as I navigate what I truly believe is a calling.

Support our side hustle and know that when you do, you enable us to fulfil our why.

Our first market…

Losika Writes had its first market at the One Beat One Love festival and it was awesome meeting and having chats with people who are interested in celebrating cultural diversity in our beautiful Melbourne city. Cultural diversity week allowed us to meet with multitudes of people coming together to acknowledge the flavour we all bring to our society. The conversations were eye opening and we got to meet so many people who champion diversity in workplaces, on book shelves and everywhere else.

“It is NOT our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences” Audre Lorde

We are looking at having many more markets and excited to meet everyone who ventures to our little corner of the world.

Losika Writes Markets

Melbourne market

International Women’s day 2019

international women’s day 2019

It was a great honor to present to the beautiful women of Africa Day Australia as a guest speaker on this momentous occasion. I thought I would share my speech below for those who couldn’t make it to share as we celebrate women and the men who allow us to stand tall. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know on the comments please.

My name is Dr Tshegofatso (Teah) Mogae. I am a bit nervous so I hope I will not have verbal diarrhoea and divulge all my secrets. I am a mum, wife, medical practitioner and I own a small business called Losika Writes. I was kindly asked to provide a speech to an awesome bunch of women to celebrate international women’s day and I thought, sure why not. I am a woman, tick so I already tick that box at least. But then I had to decide what to talk about and that was the tricky bit.

Do I talk how being born a female in 2019 still sucks compared to being born a male anywhere in the world? Or about how 1 in 2 women in Australia will experience sexual harassment in their lifetime? Or how despite working hard women earn 85c compared to $1 earnt by men doing the same jobs yet then still do the bulk of unpaid care work at home.

So you can understand how if I was to talk about the #metoo movement or how 10 women and 1 child have died since the beginning of 2019 in Australia alone or how women such as Ms Rahaf Alqanun have to literally run away from their homes and lock themselves in hotel rooms to get tell the world of the plight of women in different parts of the world how sad my talk would be. I think these issues are important discussions to be had and I am sure we can make time for each of them, but I thought I would be uplifting on this special day.

So for that I turned towards the theme for this year which is balance for better. First thing I thought was oh no, they want me to talk about how work life balance and how I am amazing at that. Well, I did say I was juggling motherhood, being a doctor, lecturer, business owner etc so I must admit that work life balance is a mythical creature in my life. On further review though, the theme is about creating a gender balanced world which I think is a great challenge we as women face.

On this, the 108^th celebration of international women’s day can we try to spice things up a bit and hopefully try and get equality quicker than the 202 years projected for equality at the current rate. That means, with everything remaining the same, it will only be my great, great, great, great, great, grand daughters who would get to enjoy the fruits of our labour so I thought we could get things rolling a lot sooner. I understand that we have already made great strides as women in the recent centuries, but I am challenging us to try and pick up the pace. It was almost a hundred years ago that women discussed with the men in their lives the importance of equality in terms of casting a vote in the USA. Following that, MEN then voted to allow women to cast their own votes.

So why don’t we follow in their lead to make men be the ones working harder for our equality?

So why don’t we get the men in our lives to recognise when women are not being treated equally and to do something about it?

Why don’t we get the men in our lives to question when they are invited to board meetings or panels that don’t involve any women?

Why don’t we get the men in our lives to call out and have a zero tolerance to sexual harassment of women?

Why don’t we teach our sons that being a man doesn’t involve showing strength by beating up women but rather by building them up?

Why don’t we get the investor men in our lives to question why board members of the companies they invest in don’t have women on board?

Why don’t we get the leading mean in our lives to know that trying to rule a country with political parties, or institutions with only males at the helm is like trying to fly a 747 aeroplane with only 50% engine capacity, a recipe for disaster.

Women account for 50% of the worlds population so I think it is about time some of those men stood up and made room for our fabulousness at the table. All men come from a woman, were cared for by a woman, were nursed and probably taught by a woman to become who they are. So surely, we should ensure they know how fabulous we are.

They shouldn’t just stand up to pull our chairs or to open doors for us, they should question why we are not shoulder to shoulder with them and make room for us at the table.

It all starts with us owning our power and educating the men we birth and raise, the men we grow up with, the men we love and interact with and all men in general to stand up for our equality. So let us get to it ladies, this job needs all of us.

Thanks

Dr Tshegofatso (Teah) Mogae

MBBS, DCH, DRANZCOG, FRACGP

We got featured on Readers Inspired!

Time sure does pass whilst you are having fun!

We got another interview a while ago and well forgot to mention in on our cheer-leading wall! Head onto Readers Inspired and read our interview and also find out about more kids books that celebrate African authors and African book characters in leadership positions. Aminata has taken time to profile a few authors and compile books that cater to chocolate flavoured people.

So if you have been having difficulty in sourcing diverse and inclusive children’s books, look no further than Readers Inspired.

Losika Writes lands in Botswana!!!

We have some great news for those who have been sending messages to find out where to get our beautiful products in Botswana. All in time for Christmas too!

Losika Writes products are available for PICK UP by contacting the details on our website whilst we finalise stockists in the next few months.

All orders to be processed via the website using discount code “BOTSWANA” or using this link to the website directly.

Also, listen to our recent 10 min interview with Kinderling radio to explain our “WHY”- the reason we do what we do.

Merry Christmas from all of us and thank you very much for your support. May we all enjoy the silly season and have a prosperous 2019.

Much love

Our first magazine feature!!!!!

We celebrate all milestones and this one is no exception.

We have been featured on MamaMag Eastside issue for April/May 2018 discussing the importance of “Keeping Language alive.” Grab your copy/read our article online and please support Losika Writes as we strive to celebrate our language diversity.

Our books are available as English only text or bilingual (Tswana/English and Ndebele/English books)

Losika Writes website – www.losikawrites.com

MamaMag link – Keeping Language Alive – page 42

 

 

 

Introducing Losika Writes

A while ago, I wrote a blog entry about ” Write it down and make it happen “ This was about how important it is to make your intentions known to the universe and working hard to make those intentions a reality.

Well, we have been working hard on one of those many “intentions”, hence the sporadic blog writing, and it is with great pleasure that I now let you in on a little secret…

Inspired by our son Losika, we have developed a collection of children’s picture books, some of which are bilingual (Tswana/English, Ndebele/English) to help in passing down our beautiful language to the next generation.

We are proud of the quality product and hope that you enjoy reading the books, as much as we have enjoyed creating the collection. We are continuously working to add to the collection and look forward to your support…

Head to Losika Writes and use discount code #LAUNCH to get a 20% discount on all the books…

So… I cut my locks

So August 2016, I got the all clear with all my exams…. wooohooo! To celebrate the momentous occasion, I decided to do a big chop. It had been 9 years with my beautiful locks and no, I don’t call them dreadlocks because I never found them dreadful. So on a quiet winters day, I took final pictures with locks, walked into the bathroom and chopped them all off. I walked out to my husband and son and saw them do a take 2 after noticing that the hair was now a TWA (teeny- weeny afro). I collected all the hair and put it into the garbage, ensuring that under no circumstances would I be tempted to reconnect them to my scalp, yes, it can be done and know a few people who have attached ready made locks. I had to come to terms with the new hair pretty quick. I had no option of waking up in the morning and tying my hair into a ponytail and not thinking twice about how it looked.

I now had to learn the afro lingo and boy is there a lot of lingo. From- co wash, pre- poo, twist out, protective styling to mention a few. I had to try and schedule regular washes, get the right shampoos and conditioners for the hair, get a silk scarf to sleep with and a few other things. I had to relearn how to braid my own hair, something I had not had to do since my second year of medical school. I also, unfortunately, realised that my hair was still as kinky and coily as it had been prior to the locks and that putting a comb in it every morning was torture so quickly became familiar with more humane forms of management.

It has been almost a year and I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss my locks or the ease with which they were to manage at the end. I could style them and know that my hair was sorted for at least a month. I watched YouTube for hair style inspirations and was comfortably able to experiment with different styles or hair-colour without a care in the world as I felt my hair was robust enough to handle what I threw at it. I have had to learn everything from the beginning without an easily accessible chocolate specific hair salon to help with the task at hand. I felt that the TWA, which was essentially my lock roots, was very fragile and I had to “baby it” in those first few months but now it has got with the program. Speaking of salons, they all still seem to have ridiculous prices for everything to do with hair of the afro-texture. Well, I say ridiculous because prior to locks, I had been able to get my hair braided, plait etc for less than a tenth the price I was now seeing advertised.

I also realise that I have to do a little more with my looks to ensure that I don’t look like a boy. I am happily experimenting with bolder makeup and jewellery to accessorise the afro which my husband adores. Every new season throws a spanner in the works and I am still learning. I have developed techniques that for the most part have been working okay and I am currently appreciating my roots, excuse the pun. I am eagerly looking forward to what this hair journey has in store and I can’t honestly promise that I won’t ever lock my hair again. For now though I am loving the TWA.