10 Jul 2022

Botswana Family and Welfare Association (BOFWA) is appealing for volunteers who can assist the organisation in achieving its mandate.  

BOFWA President Ms Tshoganetso Lesomo said during a strategy meeting in Gaborone on Saturday that they were a volunteer-owned organization, from the highest decision-making body (the national council), through the National Executive Committee (NEC / Board), to the Youth Action Movement (YAM).

Ms Lesomo said their role was to remain a nationally recognised leader in sexual and reproductive health care to ensure good family planning among citizens, as a human right.

She said the roles available to volunteers were intended to provide a unique opportunity for them, besides learning about Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), BOFWA and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), but to learn about their community and serve it.

In addition, she said the opportunity sought to enlarge their social network to work for the fulfilment of SRH OP for all.

“The time volunteers invest in BOFWA will depend upon their interest, the role they undertake and the needs of the association. Some people will volunteer every day, some will volunteer for a few hours a week and some will volunteer for one-off events and activities,” she said.

Ms Lesomo indicated that there were several areas through which volunteers may wish to contribute which included among others, clinic volunteers mentioning that the greater Gaborone district was run by volunteer doctors from the USA and UK.

She said other areas included training, mentorship and coaching in various areas of expertise for administrative support, advocacy, resource mobilization and fundraising.

Ms Lesomo said to have a functional board, they wished to have members of the sub-committees, mentioning that they had standing sub-committees and ad-hoc ones at this juncture.

“For sub-committees, we need about five members including co-opted ones to undertake budgeting and strategic financial planning,” she said.

 Moreover, she reiterated that they needed members to handle recruitment, management and retention of volunteers.  

She said more roles and responsibilities for the committees included guiding policy formulation and strategy development to influence investment for sustainability.

Ms Lesomo added that accreditation of programmes and influencing the strategic direction of any given programme remained core of the skills set they required in the sub-committees. Ends