25 Oct 2015

The Chinese Embassy together with Charity Association of Chinese in Botswana donated P170 000 to Botswana Workcamps Association (BWA) for its agricultural project and skills training fund.

Speaking at the launch ceremony to start the development of a poultry project in Mochudi on Thursday October 22, Chinese ambassador, Mr Zheng Zhuqiang said since 2013, ‘China-Africa People-to-People Friendship Action’ had supported five local projects and made great contribution to the social development of Botswana.

“It is known that skills and agriculture development are always priorities for Botswana’s national strategic plan. 

So after careful evaluation and consideration, the action chose to sponsor BWA since last year. 

This is the second successive year that we sponsor the skills and agriculture development project proposed by BWA,” he said. 

He said the Charity Association of Chinese in Botswana endeavours to encourage more Chinese nationals to fulfill their social responsibility by supporting Botswana’s social development through women and youth empowerment, poverty alleviation and others.

Ambassador Zheng further said the association and BWA would carry out the project together under “China-Africa People-to-People Friendship Action”.

He said he was confident that the support they give to BWA would help more Batswana especially the youth to further develop their skills, gain wider independence and live a happier life.

The guest speaker, Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Unity Dow commended BWA for providing voluntary services to the communities of Botswana, more so that the spirit of voluntarism and self-help had been in a tremendous decline in recent years.

Associations such as BWA, she said play a significant role in ensuring that Batswana get interested in helping the less fortunate without getting paid.

Minister Dow said the association had a number of branches in junior and secondary schools with the aim of developing them into patriots of voluntarism at an early age, while at the same time developing future leaders of the country.

She highlighted that relations between Botswana and the Chinese date to decades of years, which they had supported Botswana across all life spectrums including the education sector.

“A good number of Batswana students have had the opportunity to study for their undergraduate and master’s degrees in China, all thanks to China scholarship programmes,” she said.

She further said the Charity Association of Chinese in Botswana was solely mandated to provide charity work to the people of Botswana adding that “we struggle to find the right words to express our delight on the help that they continue to give to our people.”

Minister Dow said skills development was the greatest investment that one could ever give to young people, because it enables them to make a living and sustain themselves.

As a result, she challenged the youth who would be part of the skills training to take the opportunity with both hands as it deserves a high level of seriousness.

Also, she advised BWA to have their own borehole in order to avoid water shortages and take advantage of the solar energy to install solar lights in their backyard.

The vice chairperson of BWA, Mr Baboloki Otisitswe said the association was a non-profit making organisation, which aims to provide effective voluntary services to the communities with great emphasis to the less privileged community.

He said their intention was to make sure that young people were trained to acquire business acumen and later refer them to relevant government department for funding.

Mr Otisitswe said training and skills acquired would make sure that their projects do not fail hence sustainable livelihood. ENDS