22 Oct 2017

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama has been bestowed honourary membership of the Gaborone Golf Club.

This took place during  the official opening of the Lady Khama house which burnt down some several years ago.

President Khama received the honourary with great pleasure and promised to support the club with each and every means he would have.

The President said he was happy to re-open the house that burnt down years ago, a legacy that his parents left behind.

“It is very touching. I am just grateful that I was asked to come and officially open this facility before I retire as President,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gaborone Golf Club captain, Martin Mogomela said it was a great honour for President Khama to have been appointed as an honourary member of the club at a time when he (President) was winding down his presidency assignment.

Mogomela thanked the President for his dedication in poverty eradication and citizen empowerment.

The captain further explained that the President would be at liberty to continue his membership even after his tenure as a member and that Gaborone Golf Club would be highly delighted to have him.

The chairperson of Lady Khama Charitable Trust (LKCT), Dale Ter Haar explained that for several years, the Trust focused on raising funds for the vulnerable women and children of Botswana, continuously striving to help them live with dignity.

“In this vein, we have handed over three large projects in 2017. The first is a much enlarged day care centre to the Botswana Retired Nurses Society in Tlokweng which increases the number of children they can cater for from 50 to 120. We also handed over a refurbished Tlamelong Rehabilitation Centre run by the Botswana Red Cross. The centre was actually the brain child of Lady Khama who opened it 43 years ago. It has been running ever since. Her focus was on improving the lives of people living with disability. This, they achieved through physical rehabilitation as well as vocational training in textiles, cooking and horticulture. We built three new tunnels for growing vegetables,” he added.

He said the Trust also drilled a borehole and painted the existing buildings, adding that the Trust was also in the process of finishing the complete refurbishment of the Camphill Community Trust physiotherapy building.

This will be used to provide rehabilitative care to young people living with physical and mental disabilities, he said.

“Our partnership with Shonaquip continues and this saw us purchasing 15 specialist wheelchairs in support of an outreach programme to children with mobility disabilities throughout Botswana. These specialist wheelchairs aim to improve the posture of the children that use them. Improvements in posture in turn help the children avoid many secondary and rehabilitating complications. We have supplied 45 children with specialist wheelchairs to date,” he said.

He explained that the Trust’s desire was to move forward on establishing playgroups in rural communities, adding that he was happy to have the first 22 community care givers from three different communities going through their four week playgroup training programme.

“When they return to their communities at the end of October, they will establish a play group, run by themselves, that will be able to cater for up to 72 children. ENDS