AN EDUCATED AND INFORMED NATION

One of the fastest growing players in Botswana’s Computer Consultancy Industry- Sambiri Botswana have committed themselves to giving back to the community. With over 30% of Africa’s population still yet to see a computer and over 50% being computer illiterate, Sambiri Botswana are starting the battle against such statistics and their point of entry being the areas that need computer literacy the most.

This past weekend of the 20^th of June Sambiri’s Managing Director Mr Tonderayi G Usada ran a full day course of Basic Information technology to about 10 delegates form two charity Organizations I am special education society and The Kings Foundation, here in Gaborone. The course took the delegates on journey through basic understanding of the common called desktop and all its clicks.

“When I came here I did not even know how to click and what exactly that meant”, said Fatima Ndogwedi one of the overjoyed delegates.

“Now I have a different understanding of the computer and thank you Mr Usada for really breaking everything down to our level”, she added.

“We would even want another course to learn more about Microsoft Word and Excel”, pleaded Kebaeditse Ramooki and Emily Chibale of The Kings Foundation.

I am Special Education Society is a local school in Tlokweng for children with conditions like Downs syndrome, Autism, Celebral palsy, Dyslexia, ADD and other Developmental Delays. When the staffs from such schools become aware of how to use the computers, they can take some of these skills back to even introduce computer lessons for their children.

The Kings Foundation team will definitely benefit from this course because as they gear up to impact Botswana and even surrounding countries they need a well organized administration to be complimenting their well known prowess on the sport fields.

The Kings Foundation would like to thank Mr Tonderayi Usada and his team for putting together such a valuable course for organizations that otherwise would not have managed to be trained If they were to pay for such workshops. This is a bold step by Sambiri Botswana towards building an Educated and Informed Nation by 2016. Click here to read more about Sambiri Botswana.

AFRICA FIT FOR CHILDREN

From Cape to Cairo, Africa was in one accord celebrating the day of the African child this past Tuesday on 16 June. Oliver Muchazviona, Tapologo Botsalano Mogapi, Kebaeditse Ramooki and Farai Bobo represented The Kings Foundation Botswana (KF) and joined The Jwaneng Town Council and the Nation of Botswana in Jwaneng to celebrate this historic day for Africa as a whole. Joining this team was Kgomotso Monageng from Lifeline Botswana, Roger Ryan from Burners beyond Borders [from San Fransisco USA], Prentiss Darden from Baylor Clinic, Patience N Katsamba and Nicolet from The Faith Foundation.

The Minister of Local Government Honourable Ambrose Masalila opened the event with a speech and from then on children from Jwaneng Primary School, Dinonyane Primary School, and Broad Vision day Care centre among others graced the event with dramas, debates and Traditional dancing which were all in line with this year’s theme of “Children Fit for Africa”.

The Jwaneng Town Club was colourful with a cocktail of different people representing their organizations from all over Botswana and this created an atmosphere for networking and connecting as some organizations set up stalls to showcase their work and how it benefits the children of Botswana and contributes towards Vision 2016.

Afterwards The Kings Foundations’ contingent passed through Mpule kwelagobe orphanage to meet with their Coordinator Mma Mogasha and they were led to meet some of the Foster families staying there.  John, who was just about 6 months old, won the ladies hearts when they heard that he was abandoned when he was just 5 weeks old.

“We really appreciate your love and responsibility that you show when you check on us each time you are in Jwaneng’, opened up Mma Mogasha.

“We are planning a sponsored walk on 27 July 2009 trusting that we will be able to raise funds to renovate some of our homes that have leaking roofs and we would appreciate you joining us”, she added.

The event went well and seeing the African child being given the platform to perform at the event summed up Botswana’s attempt to really put the Motswana child first.

Click here to veiw photos of the event

MABUTSANE NETWORKING TRIP

No one would have predicted that what started as a brief visit to Mabutsane in January 2008 would later on see the growth of a thriving sports outreach program for children and youth through out the whole year. After making another trip to Mabutsane in August the same year to conduct a Sports Leadership Workshop for over 50 delegates of different youth clubs from in and around Mabutsane, the Kings Foundation Gaborone team is pleased to have stood with Gloria Tlhalefo Motswagole as she went on to win a Vision 2016 award for her great work at the sports outreach program in Mabutsane.

On 22 & 23 May The KF Gaborone team went out again to Mabutsane to strengthen relations and encourage Gloria’s team who are doing a wonderful job for the children in their area. The Gaborone team were comprised of Oliver, Keba and Clive. Church For all Nations (CFaN) was represented by Richard Okullo and Tsaone Seakgosing and World University Services of Canada (WUSC) was represented by John Rennie, Kathrine Schwenger and Kelly Mitchell who are students from Canada in Botswana at the moment just to be engaged in voluntary work. This combination brought together a team of eight people from different backgrounds but with one passion, “to develop children through sport”.

“Children came in their numbers and we had an exciting time, I thank Kings Foundation for opening up this opportunity for me”, boasted Tsaone.

“It was our first time to go to a Botswana rural area and spending the night in a tent made it even more adventurous, we are grateful for the invitation because we enjoyed working with Oliver and Keba”, echoed John.

Most of the Village came out in full support and we are pleased that this is the right step towards our efforts of helping to build a compassionate, just and caring nation. This is also a good platform for our sports ministry as we preach the gospel through sports. The KF team would like to thank CFaN and WUSC for being a part of the Kings Family and we would still enjoy partnering with different organizations and churches as we now look out to other places like Malotwana, Mahalapye, Ramotswa, Otse, Molepolole, Goodhope and Ghantsi and Botswana as a whole.

Tonota Otreach

This weekend marked a new beginning for the King’s Foundation in the north. We travelled to Tonota, a village that is about 30 km from Francistown. On our first visit to the village we had about 80 children from around the community. We had fun games and then some relay races. The headmistress of the school liked the program and asked us to return. “This is a very good program you are doing and the children really need it in this community”, add Mrs Siyanngape the headmistress of Tonato Primary School. This weekend when we went back we had 200 children that we lead in sports activities and fun games. We are looking forward in establishing a partnership with a local church (Naioth Bible church) and the primary school. In this way the program will be sustainable and the local community will be involved. We plan on making these short trips in the neighbouring villages and towns.