Mohalenyane Phakela
THE Morija Museum and Archives (MMA) will this Saturday host a family fun day meant to promote tourism and celebrate International Museums Day.
MMA Curator, Stephen Gill, this week told the Weekender the family fun day will consist of a number of activities that include tours of the Morija-based museum, pony trekking, hike to the dinosaur footprints and excursion to Makeneng, the royal village of Chief Lerotholi.
He said art, crafts and books would also be exhibited and sold during the event as well as screening of the museum’s 2016 award-winning documentary Ho Llela Borena.
MMA is a non-profit cultural and educational institution developed by the Lesotho Evangelical Church of Southern Africa in 1956. It is dedicated to developing programmes and activities related to fostering local history, heritage and community-based tourism, the arts and culture, as well as science and the environment.
Gill said the event had been organised to commemorate International Museum Day (IMD) in a local way.
IMD has been marked since 1977 to raise awareness on how important museums are in the development of society. It provides the opportunity for museum professionals to meet the public and alert them on the challenges that museums face.
“International Museum Day has been annually celebrated on 18 May worldwide since 1977,” said Gill.
“The day is an occasion to raise awareness on how important museums are in the development of society.
“As MMA, we are trying to trying to sensitise the community about the importance of this day by giving it a local theme. We have tried to include different activities we have around Morija and other attractions around the area.”
He said the event was also meant to foster tourism in Morija and its neighbouring villages.
“Most tourists come to Morija to see the dinosaur footprints. But there are many other attractions in this area.
“We are working closely with organisations such as the LTDC (Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation) to try find ways of developing other areas.
“Our partnership will see to it that we train the community to be tour guides so that they can take tourists to places such as Makeneng.”
Gill said the family fun day would be the first edition and a follow up event would be dependent on the response.
