14 Jun 2020

SOS National Director, Mr Motshwari Kitso says lack of funds impedes their mandate of supporting the unfortunate children.

Briefing the press in Gaborone on June 12 Mr Kitso appealed for individual and organisational support. 

He said  given the circumstances at hand it was difficult to raise funds and get donations to meet their annual budget of P26 million. 

He said P12 million of their budget was from foreign donors while P14 million had to be raised locally which had proved to be a challenge due to social distancing.

“Fund raising initiatives have stopped due to social distancing making it impossible to host dinners and sponsored walks as usual. 

Funds have not been coming in, as all focus was on COVID-19 relief fund which made it more difficult for SOS villages to be funded,” he said.

He said realising challenges at hand, they have been doing contact fund raising, a deviation from their usual strategies. 

They have come up with digital fund raising initiative to reach people wherever they are and the donors would be able to donate at their convenience.

“During this period of COVID-19 we put together national response team that will do risk assessment to monitor SOS children’s villages preparedness and also ensure that there is a smooth flow of information in the organisation.”

Mr Kitso said the situation at hand made them to come up with mitigation plan given the children under their care. 

He said they were looking after children of different ages, stage of development and needs.

He said they suspended having visitors at the villages during the lockdown period to avoid contact with people from outside.  

He added that outreach programme, family strengthening operations had been suspended so that SOS field workers could avoid contact with clients to adhere to all COVID-19 protocols as set by the Ministry of Health and wellness and the government.

“In risk assessment we were also looking at children’s emotional state and their care givers as they are in villages not going to school because they are contained within the organisations and that on its own it had its emotional distress,” he said.

Mr Kitso said as a result of confinement, counseling, educational games and programs were availed for children in the villages. 

He further said they would ensure that caregivers, children and staff members were back to the normal state they were in prior to COVID-19. Ends