Botswana - Overview 

Capital: Gaborone
Area: 582,372 km²
Population: 1.6 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Tswana, Bakalanga, San, Europeans and Asians
Official languages: Setswana, English
Religion(s): indigenous beliefs, Christians
Currency: 1 pula = 100 thebe

SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country

First contacts were made in 1980 and the following year the national association, "SOS Children's Village Association of Botswana" was founded. It was three years later that construction started on the first SOS Children's Village in Tlokweng, a small town about 12 km from the capital of Gaborone. When it was completed, the SOS Children's Village consisted of six family houses, a kindergarten and a chicken farm. Due to the continually increasing demand the SOS Children's Village Tlokweng was extended in 1991 and 1999, first to ten family houses and finally to a total of fifteen. The reason for the extensions was that the orphan situation in Botswana was proving to be ever-more difficult.

Also, the ever-increasing number of people with AIDS meant that there was going to be a dramatic increase in the number of orphans in the country. Over the years the need for suitable accommodation for the youths who were outgrowing the SOS Children's Village also arose and so, between 1993 and 1995, two youth houses were constructed, one on the site of the SOS Children's Village and the other in Gabarone itself.

Local support meant that in 1997 it was possible to add two simple vocational training centres for the youths to the SOS Children's Village. Courses in carpentry, welding, home-economics and craft industries are offered here. In the same year, the cornerstone was laid for the second SOS Children's Village in Francistown, in the north of Botswana, which started operating in 1998.

 

In 2006 the construction of the third SOS Children's Village in Serowe started. The project has been established in several phases and the construction process could be completed in 2009.

In 2008, SOS Children’s Villages started to operate Family Strengthening Programmes, which enable children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers.