25 Apr 2017

Botswana Stuttering Association (BoSA) executive director and founder Boago Ratshoswane has pleaded with the government and the community at large for support in their efforts to educate the nation about  stuttering.
He  appealed with the public and government to extend a helping hand towards their association.
In an interview recently, Mr Ratshoswane explained that their main mandate as BoSA is to educate and sensitise the public about stuttering so that everyone could have information about stuttering and to also help people with stuttering to break the glass ceiling and realise their true potential and also to be the captain of their own lives.

“We once hosted a boot camp for children who stutter in collaboration with the ministry of education and we received a lot of positive feedback from parents who were happy with the overall improvement of their children’s confidence, self-esteem and dignity so a little bit of help from some stakeholders would be of great aid,” said the BoSA head honcho.

He also cited a public speaking seminar they also held whose objective was to help people who stuttered to become public speakers despite their speech impediment as one of their efforts to address challenges faced by them.
Explaining how the formation of BoSA came about, the 28 year old said after the realisation that the speech impediment called stuttering affected a number of people in Botswana with no organization or institution which was there to address the challenges faced by people with this disorder.

He added that the idea of BoSA was conceived on October 5, 2014 and it was officially registered on April 14,2016 .
Quizzed on the future plans of the self-support group, Mr Ratshoswane said the association intended to increase its foot print in the cou

ntry to reach all corners of the country and also execute their 10 year vision of building a speech therapy university or College in Botswana which will have a clinic where their students will practice therefore reducing the shortage of speech therapists in Botswana.
Furthermore, he said stuttering was a disability because according to United Nations, a disability was any physical, emotional or mental impairment that affected the daily activities of an individual, so since stuttering affected someone’s daily speech activities and also incurable, he beliefs that qualifies it to be a disability.
Mr Ratshoswane, who stutters as well, said no one exactly knew what caused stuttering but the most recent research indicated that family history (genetics), neuromuscular development, and the child’s environment, including family dynamics, all played a major role in the bringing about the condition.

Although stuttering has no cure, Mr Ratshoswane said an intervention of a qualified speech therapist/pathologist could help make a significant progress towards fluency.
On his advice to people who stutter, Mr Ratshoswane encouraged them to take an active approach towards their stuttering, which included meeting up with other people who stuttered through networks such as BoSA where they could support each other and know that they were as smart and intelligent as anybody else and should not let their stuttering be a stumbling block to reach their success.

He however encouraged those who lived with people who stutter to desist from lecturing them down on what to do. This, he said could only make a person more self-conscious, making the stuttering worse.
He also urged them to try more helpful responses which included listening patiently and modelling slow and clear speech themselves. ENDS