Projects
Our Pride
Botswana Society for the Deaf prides itself in assuring that advocacy and empowerment of the deaf is trickled down into every project pioneered by BSD. Thus far, BSD’s key projects are the Ramotswa and Francistown Centre for Deaf Education. These Centres are located in the Southern and Northern part of the Country. The two Centres provide pre-primary and primary education including vocational training skills. The centres are subsidized by the government of Botswana which provides 80% of the total budget; furthermore the government provides qualified skilled and specialized staff trained in teaching the Deaf. The Centres are managed by the Ministry of Basic Education in conjunction with Botswana Society for the Deaf, over and above these two centres;
Our Projects
Debswana
Botswana Society for the Deaf and Francistown Centre for Deaf Education would like to thank Debswana and Anglo American for their continued support and partnership in caring for the livelihood of the Deaf community. A donation as this will go a long way and forever remembered especially in times as these were support is rare.
Debswana donated a shipping container which is to be converted and modified into a kiosk/store, office and storeroom that will display items produced at the prevocational Department; leather, wood work and dress making. The Centre provides pre- primary, primary and pre-vocational training for student. The Guest Speaker at this memorable event was Head of Legal Department, Ms Ludo Tema who outlined the mission of this project, for the Centre’s need to sustain themselves beyond donations. This is an opportunity for the Centre to come up with ways to venture into the business industry and generate income, giving students an opportunity to benefit from the training and skills they have acquired. This is a great platform to make their products known by the community and the nation.
Ms. Tema mentioned that the project is made possible through a grant from Anglo American Foundation under the Ambassadors for Good Programme, which aligns with the Debswana One Dream One Team strategy under the Environment and Sustainable Communities pillar.
The councilor for Somerset Extension Honourable Thatayaone Tselawe was among the guests who
graced the handing over the event.
Sign Language Awareness Campaign
BSD embarked on a sign language awareness campaign which was carried out in different organizations in Gaborone. The intent of the campaign was to increase sign language awareness in the community and teach Batswana basic sign language. The campaign maintained a footprint in private companies, government ministries and schools. From its inception, the target groups of the campaign included businesses, religious organizations, health facilities, legal services as well as law enforcement arms with the intent of later extension of the campaign to other areas within Botswana, the workshops were offered free of charge and ran within the period of February to March 2020.
Covid-19 Workshops
Presentations were conducted by sign language instructors to raise awareness about Covid 19 and the deaf community; this was also an opportunity for attendees to be taught new signs for all covid-19 related matters. During this outreach the following schools were visited:
- Ramotswa Community Junior Secondary school
- Ramotswa Center for Deaf education
- Francistown Center for Deaf Education
- Tashatha Community Junior Secondary School
