14 Apr 2016

 About 175 young people from five villages in Okavango have been funded to the tune of P 920 000 by the Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture.  

This was said by the Business Botswana President, Mr Leta Mosienyane on Monday in Tsodilo at the launch of the Capacity Building and Skills Development Project.

Mr Mosienyane said the objective of the project is to empower the youth in the communities around Tsodilo heritage site.

“This is to help train them to acquire relevant skills that will position them to derive benefits from tourism activities around the site and in the Okavango area,” he said.

He also said the skills would also give young people capacity to start small businesses that will cater for the tourism sector.

The Capacity Building and Skills Development Project he said would cover training and skills development for a three year period in the areas of hospitality and tourism, professional guiding, performing arts and craft making.

Elaborating on the project, Mosienyane said the Capacity Building and Skills Development Project was conceptualised as a result of the recommendations of the Mid term Evaluation and the Sustainability plan for the broader Tsodilo community development in 2013.

He said the “noble” gesture by Diamond Trust of initially funding the project to the tune of P10 million and lately P5 million under the Corporate Social Investment Programme is the main enabler of the Tsodilo Community Development Project.

He assured Tsodilo community that Business Botswana would provide technical expertise and guidance to the project.

When giving the overview about the Tsodilo community project, the project manager Charles Motshubi said he appreciated the P10 million that was given by the Diamond Trust.

He said about 16 youth were trained in different courses in Maun.

Most of them, he said were excelling in their studies adding that before they were assisted, the village experienced a challenge of shortage of water and they had to travel 40 km to look for water.

Motshubi also appreciated some of the developments such as construction of campsites, craft centre and the drilling of boreholes. The manager also appreciated the fund stating that it is going to change the life of the youth in Tsodilo and surrounding areas. ENDS