The Botswana Red Cross: Sefhare Stimulation Centre

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. 

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.