01 Jun 2014

Three Francistown high school students recently returned from the United States of America (USA), where they had gone on an exchange programme sponsored by the US Embassy in Botswana.

Rejoice Molosiwa, a Form Five student at Mater Spei College, Leone Michael and Louise Mandumbwa, both from the lower Sixth Form at John Mackenzie School, spent more than three weeks in the USA taking part in seminars aimed at youth empowerment and capacity building on community service.

All females, the three students were selected after a five-day trans-boundary exchange programme to expose participants to the importance of wildlife conservation and ecology, health and cultural understanding organised by the American embassies from Zimbabwe and Botswana in December 2013.

The initiative, which was held in partnership with the Tachila and Bulawayo nature reserves, started in Francistown and ended in Bulawayo.

In an interview recently after their return, Rejoice, who is interested in issues of environmental conservation and creating awareness on global warming, said one of the highlights of the visit was how Americans believed in the empowerment of the less privileged.

“We learnt a lot, particularly the fact that the US is all about empowerment and the youth are encouraged to play an active role in helping others. 

Even in the churches that we visited this spirit was always emphasised,” she said.

Another student, Louise, who belongs to her school’s debate club, said the trip taught her that the youth should do away with the habit of pointing fingers and seeing fault in other people while doing nothing for them.

“It became clear to us that as youth we need to stand up and be involved in our communities, including solving problems,” she said.

The youth often find it easy to point fingers at government and feel that they are entitled to certain things, yet they have a civic duty, which unfortunately is lacking in most of them, she said.

Relating her experiences, Leone, a sports person who dabbles in various sporting codes, and is also involved in debate, explained that she learnt about the importance of time management from the Americans.

Time management is crucial even to high school students because they should always follow set times as they move from one lesson to the other and get grounded if they fail to comply.

“Confidence is another thing that is in abundance in the USA and it is visible. 

Most of the youth we met were outspoken and did not hold back,” she added.

Since their return, the students explained that they had had the opportunity to share experiences with their fellow students to motivate them.

Leone and Rejoice have since formed an organisation called Beautiful Things, the aim of which is to bring youth from both government and private schools for empowerment purposes.

They also intend to bring on board students with disabilities and engage them in conservation activities.

The organisation, they noted, had been introduced to both John Mackenzie and Mater Spei students.

Consequently, Lousie mentioned that since coming back, she had presented a project named Limitless Initiative to engage the youth on problems in schools around Francistown.

This project, she said, was also pitched while they were in Chicago and it got positive feedback from some of the participants like the Namibian member of the junior Parliament, a platform which she thinks is needed in Botswana for youth to air their views.

While in America, the students visited Washington DC, where they toured the Lincoln Memorial; Martin Luther King Memorial; Capitol Hill; and the White House; Muncie Indiana; Chicago; and Illinois. 

They also experienced American culture in Indiana by living with some American families. 

They also attended seminars at Ball State University on entrepreneurship, democracy, leadership, African solutions for African problems, American history and American founding principles. Ends