17 Sep 2014

The Trust for Okavango Cultural and Development Initiatives (TOCaDI) future seems bleak as the organisation faces shortage of funds to sustain its operations.

TOCaDI, which is a non-profit making organisation based in Shakawe in the Okavango Sub-district aims to utilise all possible strategies to assist the San to get access to land and other resources needed for their survival.

The organisation focuses on mobilising the people into community organisations so that they could manage their resources in sustainable manner. The trust, which was formed in 2002, relied on funding from international donors and some of the donors had stopped the assistance.

TOCaDI serves people in the Okavango sub-district, 21 villages and settlements had been catered for, nine on the eastern side and 13 on the western side of the Okavango panhandle.

As part of the Kuru Family of Organisations, TOCaDI works to address the needs of the San people considered to be a marginalised community. The trust aims to empower communities in the Okavango sub-district to become self-reliant and improve their standards of living.

Residents of Kaputura settlement have accused the trust management of failure to represent their needs and aspirations diligently, adding that there were developments implemented in the settlement besides a vegetable garden which was established by Okavango Sub District Council to empower women.

In an interview with Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBRMN) officer, Mr Keorapetse Bantupita confirmed that the trust is faced with a serious challenge of finances to achieve its mandate.

He said the trust relied on donor funding for survival, adding that they have many projects in the pipeline aimed to empower the locals but due to lack of funds they have not taken off the ground.

Mr Bantupita said developments in many villages had come to a halt due to financial constraints. In 2009, he added that they retrenched some of the workers.

One of TOCaDI’s focal areas has always been encouraging the communities to start income generating schemes and other livelihood activities, he said.

He said TOCaDI programs included a health program where health workers and caregivers administer TB medication to patients in their respective settlements, building pre-schools to help San children integrate into schooling systems and reducing the high rate of school drop-outs.

Mr Bantupita said TOCaDI served as a facilitating organisation because it assisted community trusts with resources to run their offices. “We had extension officers working in the main office, due to financial constraints we had to retrench them.

The donors who assisted us stopped because Botswana was declared a middle-income country,” he said. He thanked the Diamond Trust which sponsored the Tsodilo Community Initiative Project to the tune of P10 million.

The project, he added has improved livelihoods of the local people through provision of water. Two boreholes were drilled for the people and standpipes provided. Furthermore, Mr Bantupita said currently only two trusts out of six are still operating while the rest are struggling financially.

Efforts had been made to approach different relevant government departments to see how best they could assist to revive the trusts, he said. Mr Bantupita appealed to the business community to assist financially to ensure sustainability and smooth running of the trust. Ends