Mercy Montsi passed away in November 2013
Her obituary can be found Here.

Although she was originally from Botswana, before coming to CIE, Mercy worked in the Ministry of Education in Lesotho as the head of the Child Guidance program. 

While at CIE her studies were focused on health and counseling of youth.  Her dissertation explored the self-concept of Basotho male and female adolescents in secondary schools in Botswana.

After leaving CIE Mercy returned to Lesotho to direct the School Counseling Program in the Ministry of Education. Subsequently she became the first woman to join the faculty at the University of Botswana. She was a Senior Lecturer of Counseling and later became an Associate Professor there.

In 1974, Jan Droegkamp was a PCV in Lesotho who worked with Mercy.  When Dwight Allen recruited Mercy to come to CIE, Jan took over her responsibilities in the Ministry as head of the Child Guidance program. Later they knew each other at CIE (Pictured right - with Mercy’s daughter Thaala while at CIE).  They met once in Zimbabwe where Mercy was working as a consultant with the UN and Jan was opening the Peace Corps office there.  They met again in 2006 when Jan took a sabbatical and went to Botswana where she co-taught a counseling course with Mercy who was at that point a Senior Lecturer at the University of Botswana.

Mercy was involved in various research studies, including a study on the provision of HIV & AIDS counseling services in Botswana junior secondary schools. During her time at the university, she was also involved in running workshops for youth in schools.

She was the author of a number of research studies including:

·What If I Woke up as the Other Sex? Batswana Youth Perspectives on Gender.

·The youth empowerment project: strengthening NGO management, research and service delivery capabilities in Botswana. 

·Perceived Challenges of Implementing the Guidance Subject in Botswana Primary Schools.

A more complete list of her publications is available on Researchgate.[12-13]