Please find
below a brief history and summary of the NGO that I work with: the Botswana Red
Cross located in Sefhare, Botswana.
The Sefhare
Stimulation Centre was founded in 1998, because Red Cross volunteers in the
community saw a need for a centre for the disabled, and Orphans and Vulnerable
Children (OVCs). The original Stimulation Centre program hosted about 6
students daily. They were brought to the Centre by their parents, and food and
transport were not available. The current building that Red Cross (RC) operates
in was built in 2006, by a local Catholic Church Nun, Sister Frances Boston. It
started with 20 children in 2006, and has now grown to 43 children, with the
capacity for 45. Red Cross staff includes: two teaching aids, an Administrative
Officer, a cleaner, the Chef, the Field Officer, the Rehabilitation Officer, a
combi driver, and the Principal/Stimulation Teacher.
There are two
programmes at the Red Cross in Sefhare. There is Branch Development (which is
run by the Field Officer) and Community Based Rehabilitation (which encompasses
the Pre-school and Stimulation classes). The Stimulation Centre services OVCs
and disabled ages 2-12, from seven villages in the Tswapong South region. OVCs
and those with special needs are referred to the Centre by the S&CD (Social
and Community Development) office, the hospitals, or health workers. There are
two classes taught at the Centre. The first is the Stimulation Class. This
class is for the children with special needs. Those with special needs include
those with physical disabilities, speech difficulties, mental illnesses, and
poor fine and gross motor skills. The most common disability is Cerebral Palsy.
The second class is the Pre-school Class. This class hosts mostly OVCs, and
those children with special needs who have graduated from the Stimulation Class
because they have gained enough skills to participate fully in the Pre-school
Class. Those students with special needs are evaluated before entering primary
school to determine if they have acquired the skills necessary to succeed in a
primary school environment.
The topics that
are covered in the Pre-Primary Curriculum Framework, and subsequently
incorporated in the curriculum at the Centre, include: Personal, Emotional and
Social Development; Language development and Early Literacy; Health, Nutrition
and Safety; Mathematics and Scientific Thinking; Physical, Creative and
Aesthetic Development; Moral and Spiritual guidance. Because Botswana does not
yet have a standard Pre-Primary Curriculum, the teachers at the school adapt
the lessons to fit the needs of the children.
As a result of
these topics, children at the Centre are trained, among many other skills, in
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) (this includes toilet training and learning
how to eat by themselves), fine and gross motor skills training, physical
education, and pre-literacy skills. The children learn many of these skills
through story-telling, rhymes and songs, colouring and painting, and playing
games. The Stimulation and Pre-School classes are occasionally combined, and
daily lesson plans are loosely coordinated.
The Red Cross
provides breakfast and lunch to the children every day. The meals are designed
to provide a nutritious, well-balanced meal for the children. In addition,
children are picked up and dropped off at home in a special Red Cross combi.
Children living in Sefhare, Chadibe and Borotsi attend school Monday through
Friday. Those who live in villages farther away are brought to the Centre twice
a week.
In addition to
the services provided above, RC provides rehabilitation services to the
children with disabilities at the Centre. RC also has an extensive Community
Based Rehabilitation program within the communities is Tswapong South that is
supported by trained RC volunteers.
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| Stimulation Centre Rehabilitation Room for the children. |
The Red Cross
has an extensive network of trained volunteers. These volunteers are trained in
areas such as: First Aid, Disaster Management and Community Based
Rehabilitation. In particular, volunteers are vital to programs run by the Red
Cross, such as Kids Club and the Mentorship Program. The primary objective of
the Kids Club is to break the stigma between children with disabilities and
those without. The secondary objective is to create a safe environment, which
allows children to receive and give support from RC volunteers and their peers,
and to develop Life Skills.
The children who
are registered in the Mentorship Program are children who have been identified
by the S&CD program as children who are OVCs. Each child/family has a
mentor (a RC volunteer who has been trained for this program) who visits the
child/household twice a month to talk with the child/children. The goal of this
program is to provide vulnerable children with a mentor in the community who
can be a positive role model and provide support and guidance to the children.
The RC in
Sefhare is home to some amazing people. The teachers, volunteers and students
are some of the most resilient, dedicated, and talented people I have ever met.
I cannot wait until after In-Service Training, when I can finally start
implementing projects within the community, and start giving back to the people
who have helped me become part of the Sefhare community.
