14 Mar 2016

Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Moiseraele Goya has launched Scientists and Engineers Without Borders BIUST (SEWBB).

Through the society, young scientists and engineers at BIUST are engaged to take initiatives to develop their communities.

Speaking at the launch and dinner on Friday March 11, Mr Goya said he was delighted that BIUST was already making its presence felt in Palapye.

He said the university was embarking on community projects aimed at improving livelihoods, citing the construction of the Dikabeya kgotla toilet, the Lotsane River Bridge and the Dikabeya water and energy project.

To achieve its goal of touching lives, the society came up with an ambitious plan to raise P1 million, whilst the University of Cincinnati in the United States which BIUST is collaborating with will raise another P1 million.

He said a couple of years ago when the government mooted the idea of building BIUST in Palapye, residents received the news with excitement and anticipation, adding that “they knew that the village and their lives were going to improve.”

He said the people of Palapye continue to believe that BIUST would help them fulfil their dream of growing into a fully-fledged cosmopolitan town.

Mr Goya, who is also the MP for Palapye, further said universities should embrace the concept of community service in addition to their core responsibility of teaching and learning. Universities, he said, were supposed to be centres of research and that the public expects them to play a leading role in finding solutions to challenges confronting the country and the world at large.

Such challenges, he said, include issues of climate change, drought, poverty, unemployment, poor work ethics, academic under achievement. For his part, BIUST Vice Chancellor Prof. Otlogetswe Totolo commended BIUST students for the projects they were undertaking in Palapye.

He said the projects were a living example of engagement for development. He said it was prudent to make a difference in the lives of the community, adding that the university was going to produce quality graduates whose initiative would impact positively in the lives of citizens.

He said BIUST was an international university in terms of its practices and ethos hence the model would be replicated in other parts of the country.

He said the university would help the country transform from a resource based economy to a knowledge based economy.

The SEWBB president, Mr Enock Government said the organisation was formed in 2015 with the aim to improve the quality of life in underdeveloped areas using practical, sustainable science and engineering skills while cultivating a sense of social responsibility in science and engineering students.

He asked for everybody’s support to enable SEWBB achieve its goal, adding that “we have the brains, but we do not have resources.”

He noted that SEWBB has changed the lives of people of Dikabeya.

The organisation recently build a toilet at the Dikabeya kgotla.  ENDS