Community Development

WOMEN’S WORKING GROUPS

This initiative aims to empower local women to develop new sources of income to support their communities. Ladies from multiple communities volunteered to receive training in artisanal skills – such as beadwork, sewing, knitting and crocheting – in order to produce quality goods, such as woven baskets, tie-dye garments and beaded home décor as well as plastic free reusable shopping bags. From there, working groups have been setup to support the ladies on their learning journey by CONNECT’s ‘Community Mobilisers,’ who are our representatives in the communities, offering advice, training and encouragement where required.

CONNECT provides essential training in how to run a business, and assists women in marketing their products to local lodges, shops and fairs and assists in negotiating a fair price to enable them to build better lives for their family and their communities.

CONNECT is assisting all Community Mobilisers and women from the working groups, with life skills training. There are two different training courses, Life Skills, and Aflatoun (which focuses on social and financial skills for teenagers and young adults), which are administered from one of our central locations.

TEACHING CHILDREN THROUGH SPORT

Everyone in Botswana loves sport! CONNECT organises football, netball and softball tournaments in the village communities in which we operate to bring people together. Through these sporting events, we teach children and adults about the importance of wildlife and conservation through the allegory of team sports.

PLAYGROUPS AND NUTRITIONAL PROGRAMME

The CONNECT team has set up curricula for playgroups for children 5 years old and younger. The play groups are managed and taught by our well-trained community mobilisers at community integrated resource centres in each community to give young children a better start in life. Not every child in rural Botswana has enough nutritious food to eat, especially when their parents work far from home in larger towns or tourism camps to support their families. CONNECT is working together with partners to feed over 100 children under the age of five in several communities.

GARDEN AND ORCHARD PROJECT

CONNECT’s team has worked with the communities to plant fruit trees, indigenous trees, and a vegetable garden. The goal of these is to increase food security of communities by helping members to successfully harvest and cultivate fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, the produce of which can benefit all community members. Of course, this is a long-term project, especially for the orchards, and requires water provision and safeguarding against animals that roam within the village. Currently, protecting the vegetable gardens is priority as the vegetables are seasonal and quick to produce. In the future the orchards will require extensive work, both active and proactive to ensure they remain intact for the betterment of the people.