In December 2003 Bana Ba Letsatsi was founded in response to the growing number of children on the streets in Maun. The issue of children roaming the streets had so far not been addressed by the authorities and BBL began by focusing exclusively on the “street children”, picking them up and taking them to a make-shift centre and re-introducing them to school.
In 2004 BBL was provided with a small office and a portion of outside space on an occupied government plot; the office could only fit two people at a time and we very quickly needed more space for the growing number of children. We applied for more space and at the beginning of 2006 we were awarded a plot of land with enough rooms to create a kitchen, classroom, 2 offices, counselling room, workshop, bathroom and outside dining area.
The core of what we do remains the same as in 2004 - we try to keep the children off the streets and away from danger by providing a safe environment for them. However we have grown considerably and are now able to provide the kind of care that every child should receive – clothes, food, showers, counselling, medical attention, haircuts, education, games and training, as well as meeting any additional requirements.
All children are assessed before being registered with us. This three-stage assessment includes interviews with the child, relatives and school. Most of our children suffer from a lack of parental care; they have dropped out or never been to school; suffer sexual or physical abuse; beg or work underage and abuse glue and other drugs.
Child assessments and home visits are conducted to ensure the children can be classified as children at risk. A personal file is kept and updated. Regular home visits are carried out whenever possible to meet with parents/relatives to further assess the problems facing a child and counsel the families. If we are unable to re-introduce the child to school we will often add them to our morning classes held at the centre, until such a time that they are ready to attend a formal school.
When we are able to re-introduce to official schools, we monitor their progress daily; our counselors are always in contact with the school teachers. Where children have voluntarily dropped out of school, counseling sessions are held to uncover the reasons behind leaving; together with visits to the school so that we can find an acceptable solution for the child. The Centre will also ensure that the child has the necessary uniforms, books, transport money and other resources.
Family initiatives are undertaken daily. We have built a workshop on site where the care-givers and mothers attend sewing and craft classes. The items they create can then be sold.
Youth development has been a strong focus to train older children in plumbing, brick-laying and roofing and assisting them in finding permanent employment with local companies.
Many of our children are addicted to glue and other substances. It is a major problem for us and we all work hard to break these addictions. However, it is clear that a separate debtor programme is needed. This is something we hope to have in the future. The rapid increase of children at risk due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic is another serious problem. Many of our children are infected with HIV and we work constantly with them and the clinics to try and ensure the best treatment possible. This, however, is generally fairly poor and many of the children do not receive the correct medication.
These are some of the main tasks involved with caring for the children. There is obviously a lot of administrative work to be done to liaise with local NGO’s and Governmental Institutions, and to organise funding, food, donations, uniforms, materials and other equipment.