06 Nov 2023

 Public and private organizations in support of the University of Botswana (UB) foundation are urged to do more than just fund raising and help to give back to support a good cause.

The Chancellor of the University of Botswana, Ms Tebelelo Seretse, said there was a need to remember that Botswana was engulfed by unemployment, particularly among the youth.

Ms Seretse said the nation could not afford to sit comfortably when Botswana was ranked eighth most unequal country in the world, with alarming poverty levels.

“These challenges ought to propel the nation to work tirelessly toward changing the current status,” she said.

Ms Seretse said there was a burning platform that called on the nation to retrospect, rethink, refocus, and set eyes on the prize. To date, the fund-raising initiatives that the foundation undertook were to raise money to support less privileged, but talented young Batswana to access graduate education.

"To show appreciation to the taxpayer, we can pledge to donate to the foundation's coffers in support of its initiatives,” she added.” “We can offer young graduates internships to prepare them for the world of work, locally or elsewhere."

Ms Seretse said organizations could make it happen through their philanthropic aims, helping young people through scholarships, and supporting research into social issues that they cared about.

Likewise, she said that they could also partner with the foundation or the university to do research and teach the skills to other organizations so to have a pool of competencies and attributes that organizations needed to prosper.

She reiterated that young people faced challenges that were different from those they experienced at their age. She said they were talking about unemployment in an era of digitalization which made everything move fast.

"They face a new work order that demands new skills and knowledge, with fewer career certainties," she said.

Ms Seretse said a graduate who spent two years unemployed may not easily catch up with the changing technology.

She said collectively they could do something that could assist the youth and work with the foundation on such projects.

She urged universities to show leadership by championing knowledge and demonstrating its benefits to society. The benefits may trickle down to address youth and Botswana problems generally.

Chairperson of the UB Foundation Board of Trustees, Mr Satar Dada, said as a foundation they believed that supporting graduate programmes would help address national expectation of researching complex challenges and providing solutions relevant to everyday life.

He said such expectation guided their decision to use proceeds of the annual fund-raising dinner to sponsor graduate students so that there was an increase in skills in research. 

He said they were cognizant of the responsibilities government had, and their efforts were geared toward relieving her pressure by giving tuition support to graduate students.

"I am aware, with great appreciation, of the response from the industry and individuals who were keen to do something to help solve societal problems and are showing an increased interest in activities that make a societal contribution," he added.

Mr Dada said it was planted in their hearts and minds that it was time to see, do, and appreciate things differently. He said the time to change for the better was a period for mind-set change, and that was why they were passionate about Reset Agenda.

He said they agreed with, President Masisi that resetting their minds could be a driver to economic transformation, and with ease move from a middle-income to a high-income country.

"This is the destination we have set ourselves, hence the urge to keep knocking at your doors so that we help the less privileged to improve their education and be more productive citizens," he said.

The event was delivered under the theme, “The New Investment Landscape: Investors need to focus on delivering investment performance through skill, assisted by data and artificial intelligence (AI) systems that improve decision-making while managing costs and enabling people to make the most of their talents.” ENDS