The suffering endured by the Batswana
Encouragement of education in the Kalahari
The Botswana people (also called the Batswana) are a tribe of Bantu people who live in the Kalahari. The 50,000 Batswana people who live there are victims of the apartheid regime, which drove what were once four million members of this tribe from their original homelands. For the last generation they have lived in the Kalahari Desert without work, without an adequate infrastructure and without the prospect of returning to their home. This is because this was used as military exercise grounds and is contaminated.
Hope of help Encouragement of education is one of the priority tasks when working with the Batswana. AIDS is widespread in the region. Apart from the inadequate medical service, the importance of a solid school education for prevention work is clear.
Support from the Peter Ustinov Foundation
An aid project based on a simple basic idea developed from a school visit of the Frankfurt International School (Oberursel) in 1991: “Work with people, listen to their problems and don’t promise anything that you cannot keep.” Taking this as a maxim, school centres were built, repaired and equipped together over the years. At the present time, the Foundation is helping to equip and renovate schools in the Moshaweng Valley for the “Kalahari Educational Trust” project. An example of this is the establishment of a satellite-supported internet connection. For the Tswana the virtual classroom means the end of their enforced isolation and access to the information age.
The Peter Ustinov Foundation becomes involved in this and further projects to benefit children in need and their families. Please join us in our humanitarian project and give children a future with hope.
> Further information at: www.fis.edu
