14 May 2017

 US Ambassador, Mr Earl Miller has praised President’s Emergency Funding for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for a remarkable legacy of creating an enabling learning environment for the children at the Gabane Community Home Based Care (GCHBC). When touring GCHBC on Thursday, Mr Miller said through PEPFAR, the grant had been able to help the centre buy television set, copiers, educational materials, kitchen equipment, furniture among others.
He said the centre received P115 000 cash injection.

“The US is pleased to partner and work with organisations, which are committed to developing their communities. Our partnership with Botswana in development comes from a long way back, such as supporting the country in areas of health and through the Peace Corps movement,” he said.
According to the centre’s coordinator,  Ms Boitumelo Leburu, GCHBC was established to care and support vulnerable and HIV/AIDS orphaned children, but had since grown to accommodate community needs as they had changed over time.

She said the centre started a feeding programme and a day care,  which would later graduate to a pre-school,in order to attend to the needs of vulnerable and orphaned children.
Ms Leburu said the centre was also a response to government’s call for communities to assist efforts of giving care when HIV/AIDS pandemic was still high in the country.
“We started as an organisation caring for HIV/AIDS orphaned and vulnerable kids, but later we realised that a lot of parents were not affording to give care and education to their children, hence we opened up the centre’s pre-school to all,” she said.

She said the centre had been able to achieve its mandate through the assistance of USA volunteers who provided expertise, such as writing proposals to seek funding and re-modernising some of the centre’s systems and operations.
“We used to have run-ins with authorities especially when it comes to licensing and operations, but with the arrival of US volunteers, we sail through in terms of compliance with the laws,” Ms Leburu said.
When briefing Mr Miller, Peace Corps volunteer Ms Teresa Landers said GCHBC was a strong organisation, and they were working hard to expand its funding opportunities to continue caring for more children as opposed to the 62 children enrolled at the pre-school.
She said HIV/AIDS was no longer an issue because of the intervention programmes, hence the centre had opened its doors to the whole community with services such as psycho-social support and education. ENDS