30 Oct 2016

Friends Of the Museum Society (FOMS) founder, Dr Gaositwe Chiepe, has called for support either in kind or financially to help the organisation realise its dream of preserving natural and cultural heritage.

Speaking at the FOMS heritage marathon sponsorship campaign in Gaborone recently, Dr Chiepe said the society facilitated a heritage marathon as an outreach programme intended to raise awareness on the importance of preserving, conserving and protecting natural and cultural heritage.

“We are planning a heritage marathon at Tswapong hills (Lecheng and Malaka), pursuant to the FOMS objective of promoting and marketing Botswana culture locally, nationally and internationally,” she said

As a voluntary, non-political and non-profit making society, she said, FOMS was formed to assist the Department of National Museum and Monuments in discharging its public mandate, which entailed preservation and conservation of the tangible and intangible natural and cultural heritage, as well as researching, collecting and disseminating information on Botswana’s heritage.

“With approximately 60 individual members and four institutions, FOMS is a vibrant society which has successfully established a strong partnership with the Department of National Museum and Monuments,” she said.

Again, Dr Chiepe said the society had maintained that FOMS was committed to preserving and conserving natural and cultural heritage, which is strengthened by a high level of professionalism, as demonstrated by the department’s staff who specialised in a wide range of museum and heritage related disciplines. Through this partnership, she added, FOMS in has over the years realised some achievements which included collaboration with the Museum to build permanent collections of artworks, historical, ethnographic and biological artefacts.

Dr Chiepe added that the society had also supported annual schools art exhibitions and education tours of heritage sites,  organised fund raising activities including music concerts, film shows, dinners, theatre and public art and built the museum galleries, the Little Theatre and the Museum Reference Library.

Further, she said among other achievements, FOMS has also facilitated research in Botswana in areas such as archaeology, history and natural sciences, hosted lectures and has held seminars and workshops.

Further, she said the society has also produced a corporate video giving FOMS overview, a pilot episode of “Adopt a Monument” and the Arts and Crafts video.

 “All the above achievements were realised because of the dedicated men and women who volunteered and still are volunteering their time and resources without expecting any remuneration,” she said.

Nevertheless, she said despite their achievements, there had experienced some challenges as a result of lack of funds.

Such, she said had hindered progress on some of the projects such which included creating a three-part television series on the heritage of Botswana, developing disability friendly facilities at some of the monuments and writing some of the heritage educational materials in braille, among others. ENDS