27 Jan 2013

 

Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe on January 25, handed over a two-roomed house donated by Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) and Kwena Concrete Products (KCP) to a family of five orphans in Robelela.

Prior to the donation, the family which is headed by 21-year-old Oteng Tebete, lived in a one-roomed mud house.  Speaking at the handover ceremony, Dr Kedikilwe told the orphaned children to take good care of the house.

He expressed gratitude to the two organisations for their good gesture adding that the donation signified good heartedness by BDC and KPC, as well as compassion to the orphaned family.

"The new house has restored the dignity of the children as now they have a proper house to live in," he said.

Dr Kedikilwe said the donation was a response to President Lt. Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama’s call to the nation at large and organisations to assist government in providing shelter and helping the less fortunate in society.

Dr Kedikilwe noted that the Presidents Housing Appeal had so far received 535 pledges to build houses for the needy. He said 175 houses had already been constructed and 70 were in progress.

He also said that in line with Vision 2016, the government through its affirmative action policy, had sponsored five youth from Robelela to pursue their bachelor degrees at ABM, University of Botswana, Botho College, GIPS as well as Limkokwing University.

He said through the Remote Area Development Programme, the Robelela Youth Association was formed to start a poultry project. The project was financed to the tune of over P683 980 by the governments of Botswana and the United States of America under a programme called Action for Economic Empowerment.

However, he expressed concern that the project, which was aimed at empowering the Robelela youth and alleviating them from poverty had not made good progress. He said other villages such as Tamasane, Diloro, and Mogapi among others benefitted from the programme.

 He urged parents in Robelela to help each other especially the poor in their community to alleviate them from poverty and also to keep an eye on the Tebete orphans and assist them where possible.

For his part, the BDC acting managing director, Mr James Kamyuka said BDC had a diverse corporate social responsibility policy through which it extends financial assistance and support to deserving individuals and communities.

“The BDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy has three main components which are donations, sponsorships and corporate social investment which we are doing today by donating a house,” he said.

He explained that his organisation’s CSR committee, in collaboration with the Bobirwa Sub district Social and Community Development unit and Village Development Committee identified the five orphaned children who were in a desperate need of shelter.

He said the Tebete orphans depended on government handouts and food rations for survival. He also said 21-year old Oteng, who is the eldest child was unemployed and earned very little through the Ipelegeng Development Programme to make ends meet. 

“We decided to help the orphaned children taking into account the direct call by the Vision 2016 council that the private sector and government ministries should come up with projects that could assist individuals and communities,” he said.

As BDC, he said, they decided to build a house for the family and they requested KPC to assist with the bricks. ENDS