*FYI- the internet was down when this was written and is just now beingublished-out of order. The original date it was written was 7/3/14*
Ok so maybe I jumped the gun a little.
Today was our first day "on the job". My two colleagues and I are working at two different centers which cater to out-of-school or vulnerable adolescents. Our first site is in a neighborhood of town with a bad reputation. The center, which opened about a year ago, is a brightly-colored collection of buildings smack dab in the middle of Gaborone's oldest township.
The woman who runs the center is from Botswana but has spent the last 13 years in St. Louis. She is impossibly energetic and optimistic about how the center can turn around the lives of some of Botswana's poorest kids. The participants range from six to 19 years old, and aren't attending school for a lot of the same reasons kids skip school back home: unstable living situations, substance abuse in the home, poverty, lack of parental involvement, bullying, etc. etc. One thing I learned: while school up through university is free, all schools require uniforms which must be purchased. No uniform, no school.
The center gives the kids a safe place to hang out rather than being on the streets. There is a health clinic, life skills classes, financial literacy classes, basic education, hot meals, and the ability to interact with kids their own ages. Where we come in is at the health clinic. We will be working with the nurse who comes in once a week to do health screenings, checkups, physicals, and whatever else she needs. There also seems to be a big issue with sniffing glue. It's cheap and easy to get. It also kills your brain cells. So we hope to develop some sort of interactive module that the center can implement to teach kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
I saw a side of Gaborone that certainly doesn't constitute "Africa Lite". I am so excited to learn from the center and the kids, and I hope to be at least a little helpful to them as well.
Today was our first day "on the job". My two colleagues and I are working at two different centers which cater to out-of-school or vulnerable adolescents. Our first site is in a neighborhood of town with a bad reputation. The center, which opened about a year ago, is a brightly-colored collection of buildings smack dab in the middle of Gaborone's oldest township.
The woman who runs the center is from Botswana but has spent the last 13 years in St. Louis. She is impossibly energetic and optimistic about how the center can turn around the lives of some of Botswana's poorest kids. The participants range from six to 19 years old, and aren't attending school for a lot of the same reasons kids skip school back home: unstable living situations, substance abuse in the home, poverty, lack of parental involvement, bullying, etc. etc. One thing I learned: while school up through university is free, all schools require uniforms which must be purchased. No uniform, no school.
The center gives the kids a safe place to hang out rather than being on the streets. There is a health clinic, life skills classes, financial literacy classes, basic education, hot meals, and the ability to interact with kids their own ages. Where we come in is at the health clinic. We will be working with the nurse who comes in once a week to do health screenings, checkups, physicals, and whatever else she needs. There also seems to be a big issue with sniffing glue. It's cheap and easy to get. It also kills your brain cells. So we hope to develop some sort of interactive module that the center can implement to teach kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
I saw a side of Gaborone that certainly doesn't constitute "Africa Lite". I am so excited to learn from the center and the kids, and I hope to be at least a little helpful to them as well.
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