20 Jul 2022

Wilderness Safari Company through its initiative; Children in the Wilderness Botswana and Okavango Sub-district Council have sealed a partnership aimed at improving school infrastructure and education in the district.

Children in the Wilderness aims to facilitate sustainable conservation through leadership development and education of children in Africa, and through the partnership, both entities seek to create an enabling environment for learning and teaching and eventually improve academic performance in schools.

Speaking during the signing of Memorandum of Undestanding to cement the partnership, the company’s managing director, Mr Kim Nixon said the signing was a symbol of their commitment to improving infrastructure at Eretsha Primary School in the Okavango Sub-district.

The company, he said, had raised over P1 million to construct additional structures at the school, adding, ‘we have now achieved our dream of building a school at Eretsha village and I give credit to council leadership and Eretsha chief for approaching us after identifying the need,” he said.

The funding will cater for the construction of two classroom blocks together with fittings and furniture; ablution block for both girls and boys, which comes with reticulation of water system within the school grounds as well as fencing of the school premises.

Mr Nixon explained that they had been pro-partners with the community for more than 22 years, as such, his team  was now part of the community. 

Furthermore, he expressed his team’s intention to construct another school at Tsodilo village to ensure children access education closer, adding that they had already engaged council on the project.

Through the partnership, he said there was still more they could do together to improve the livelihoods of the communities they operated within. Giving the background of the project Memorandum of Undestanding, Okavango Sub-district Council, assistant council secretary, Mr Losika Kula explained that the two entities shared a common mandate of uplifting and alleviating communities in the Ngamiland district from poverty.

The mandate, he said, could be traced back to 1996 when the company entered into a partnership with Okavango Community Trust (OCT) in the eastern panhandle of the Okavango Delta. 

The trust represents five villages of Seronga, Gunotsoga, Eretsha, Beetsha and Gudigwa, and Wilderness Safaris operates in an area adjacent the village in the Vumbura Plains.

By virtue of operating in the region, Mr Kula revealed that the company saw it fit to extend a helping hand to Eretsha community by constructing additional classroom blocks to cater for upper classes. 

The school, he said, was established as a satellite school in 2015 to shorten the distance the pupils travel to school as they walked 10 kilometre to the nearest primary school at Beetsha.

Initially the school was meant to enroll Standard 1-4 only, and in the long run the community requested that it be extended to upper classes of Standard 5-7, citing social ills that emanated from separating children from their parents.

“The school was registered and declared a fully-fledged primary school last year, hence the need for infrastructure that could match the demand thereof,” he added.

For his part, North West District Council chairperson, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho appreciated the partnership,  saying children of Eretsha would enjoy access to basic enabling education infrastructure.

A suitable learning environment for school children, he said, led to academic excellence, adding that the gesture would also contribute significantly to the National Vision 2036 pillar of Human and Social Development.

He commended the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for endorsing the infrastructure for the school, adding that through Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP), some additional education facilities had been funded this financial year.

He also thanked Wilderness Safaris for committing to support projects of similar nature in the future. Ends