13 Dec 2017

The SOS Children’s Village, Botswana Chapter, is facing a bleak future as it nears the years of the drying up of support from the mother body, SOS International.

By 2020, the local chapter will no longer receive money from the mother body as the country’s economy is said to be strong enough to support the local chapter.

SOS Botswana has been receiving P15 million annually from SOS International against an annual budget of P25 million.

The local chapter was required to raise the remaining P10 million locally.

“Post 2020, we won’t be getting any subsidiary from SOS International,” said SOS national director, Mr Motshwari Kitso.

 “This is so despite that the services offered by SOS are needful in modern society as the family fiber disintegrates,” he said.

Mr Kitso said Botswana was often used as a transit route during human trafficking, and that the centre had been forced to provide temporary care while the children were awaiting to be connected to their parents and families.

Furthermore, he noted that there were children housed at the centre whose parents were well off and worked, but that the relatives grabbed everything when the parents died hence the children ended up at the centre.

He added that SOS Children’s Village residents did not choose to be housed there but were forced by circumstances.

He appealled to community members to assist the centre, saying it could be in terms of expertise, experience, love and time spent with the children.

Mr Kitso said they also have some families staying within the community as part of integrating children with the community.

He said it does not always work to isolate the children and only integrate them back into the community at a later stage, adding that their target was to have all SOS families integrated into the community in the future.

He also appealed to members of the community and institutions to help house families. ENDS