11 Mar 2018

Church activities have covered a wide spectrum to meet the immediate needs of people including health, education, water, women and youth empowerment, advocacy and rehabilitation of street children.

Speaking at Tsholofelong Children and Youth Trust launch on March 6, Botswana Council of Churches (BCC) president, Reverend Metlhayotlhe Beleme said the initiative was born out of the work of churches under the auspices of BCC.

He said the initiative demonstrated the role of the church in socio-economic development, noting that the core business of churches was to preach salvation. 

Rev. Beleme said churches have not lost sight of the fact that Jesus Christ did not make an academic distinction between body and spirit.

He said the church in conformity with the Lord’s mission statement has both proclaimed the good news of salvation and also paid attention to the material needs of Batswana.

“The Tsholofelong project cannot solve the problem bedevilling family alone. As a nation we need to seriously engage on the issue of social values that will build strong families. You will agree that streets do not give birth to children, it is us who do that and then push them to resort to street life,” he said. 

He further said the nation should invest more on social values and strengthening the family unit as a sustainable solution to the ills facing the state today.

Rev. Beleme appealed to government to consider the establishment of social values council as it would help bring together dikgosi, district commissioners and religious leaders who were involved everyday in conducting marriages, solving family disputes and promoting social values through their day-to-day work. 

He said investing in the family was important as most social ills were a result of the family. He noted that they were the basic transformation and socialisation forums. He added that having crumbled, there was need to recreate a new parent with the necessary parenting skills.

Rev. Beleme said he was happy a trust was in place to independently work with churches, government, the private sector and other key players.

For her part, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Basic Education, Ms Grace Muzila said most street children and youth who had dropped from school were keen to return to class, adding that education remained an important element for taking children and youth off the streets.

Ms Muzila said children required special programme components to address their economic, psycho-pathological symptoms, health and social vulnerabilities.

She said as the ministry they would support out-of-school children and youth by providing them with education and training.

Street life amongst young people in Botswana is a major problem intertwined with economic, psychosocial and structural challenges. Ends