NED youth collaborate against poverty, crime, HIV/AIDS
Pini Bothoko | Wednesday August 20, 2014 11:30
Last Friday, the Committee of Youth Empowerment Against Crime and HIV/AIDS (CYEAC) held a ceremony here, where they displayed one of the weapons they intend to deploy against the scourges that have left families in tatters.
The weapon is in the form of a tuckshop built for a needy youth in Butale with the help of the Botswana Savings Bank (BSB). The tuckshop is intended to spirit Keitumetse Tshupelo out of the abject poverty she has been living in. This is part of the organisation’s mandate – to help each other beat poverty.
The theme for the day was: ‘Mitigating the Effects of Poverty by Empowering the Youth’. Esther Peo, a project coordinator for CYEAC said in an interview that it had been six years since they came up with the idea to start the organisation. Made up of five villages in the district, the youth agreed to help each other look out for donations to start projects for their counterparts.
Peo disclosed that their strategy initially was to hold meetings and workshops to develop a roadmap of how to help each other fight crime, poverty and address issues of health.
She explained that as NED youth they blended their various ideas and visions for their respective villages, but money became their stumbling block to implementing those ideas. She said as a result they resorted to asking for donations from companies and individuals.
“We approached companies, most of whom turned us down until we got lucky with BSB who liked our idea and agreed to fund us,” Peo said.
“In 2008 we started at Makgonatsotlhe cluster, made up of Tsamaya, Themashanga, Mabudzane, Jakalas 2 and Siviya.
“The youth at Jakalas 2 pleaded that we should help them with a village park and the youth of Tsamaya requested assistance to build a Multi-Purpose Hall which they could use to host concerts and other activities to raise funds.”
She said that they managed to acquire plots for the two projects, which are now under construction with the help of BSB. This year the youth, who have used the first two letters of their respective villages’ names, Mowana, Senyawe, Butale and Tshesebe to come up with Mosebutshe, identified 25-year-old Tshupelo and sold their idea of helping her to BSB.
“They did not welcome the idea at first, but later agreed to fund our project which we are officially handing to the beneficiary today, “ she said on Friday.
BSB marketing and business development manager, Onkabetse Sedumedi revealed that it was their sixth year funding youth projects in NED. He said they started helping five villages, but that the number has increased to nine.
“This shows that our efforts are appreciated as they are visible. Recently the committee approached us with a proposal to build a tuckshop for an unemployed and needy youth. Though we did not initially welcome the idea, we ended up conceding because it was what she wanted.
“This is a pilot project and if it succeeds we will continue to fund the tuck shop project, “ he said.
Sedumedi said as a bank, they thought that the tuckshop idea would not be a solution to youth problem in those areas and they wanted something better and unique to empower youth. He said that the society believes in self-reliance and will continue to fund the youth projects in NED. He urged the youth to take care of their projects so that their commitment in helping them could be visible as it was their way of giving to the community.