15 Feb 2018

With Botswana hosting arrays of sporting major events this year, it will need astute and committed volunteers to deliver the games.

The country will host amongst others 7th International Working Group on Women and Sport conference, Africa Union Sport Council Region 5 Karate championships in May, Confederation of University and College Sport Association (CUCSA) in June.

In December, Botswana will host the 2018 under 20 Youth Regional Games.

Ten sporting code; basketball, boxing, netball, volleyball, athletics (plus athletics for visually impaired), football,judo, gymnastics, swimming and tennis will compete in the games.

Therefore, the success of all the coming major events lies on the shoulders of Botswana Sports Volunteers Movement (SVM), which was formed in 2000 to compliment the efforts of Botswana National Sports Commission achieve the objectives of Vision 2012 and 2016 by fostering the spirit of volunteerism in different codes.

According to SVM website this was borne out of the realisation that the pathway to promote sport development, especially in cases where there are inadequate financial resources to engage fulltime personnel.

SVM chairperson, Kelebogile Maplanka said in an interview that SVM was aware of their hectic schedule this year.

She said SVM had all the human resource needed to deliver the major events.

Currently, she said they continued to engage different sporting codes in a bid to partner with them in efficient delivery of the games.

“We have signed a MoU with BOTESSA and we have ended talks with IWG and all we have to do is sign a MoU to seal the partnership,” she said.

Maplanka said SVM had delivered major games effectively, which were previously hosted by Botswana,such as the second African Youth Games.

SVM, she said continued to grow in numbers and performance,.

She added  that they would also continue to recruit individuals of different expertise to ensure that they did not fall short in their quest to deliver. Ends