Driving Botswana agenda among the Chinese

Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday December 15, 2014 16:38

Through his charity, the Charity Association of Chinese in Botswana, he has been mobilising fellow Chinese to contribute toward a good cause, and the results have not been disappointing. P1.5 million has been spent on charitable causes this year.

Miles Nan sees himself as a local. He has named his child born in Botswana, Nanbo- ‘bo’, for Botswana.  He says that is simply because he has fallen in love with his second home where he has lived for over 15 years now, as resident of Mogoditshane.

“ My child has even picked certain Tswana traits that I have identified; even the way he speaks. He is very fluent in Setswana, and has influenced us to have a full Setswana dish cooked by ourselves, at least once a week. Nan is not the only Chinese man proud of his Botswana associations. Recently, tens of local Chinese children mingled with their Batswana counterparts at the SOS village in  Tlokweng, performing both oriental and local music to the amazement of the spectators, as they played with their local counterpart.

Nan believes that taking the Chinese children out to play with their local ones is healthy for the upbringing of the two sets of children as they can grow with respect for one another.

Nan says even though in Christmas is not celebrated in China, the local Chinese community and their children have never ceased to bring joy to the people of Botswana. While about P50, 000 was spent on their 2013 Christmas, Nan reveals that this time around, the Chinese  spent P80, 000 including a cheque donation to SOS at the same time.

His association is also famous for blanket  and wheelchair donations to the Office of the President, as well as supportng the President’s housing appeal. They have also refurbished the Mogodistahen clinic to the tune of P 1 million. They also support a Trust for disabled children, and a horticulture project for youth in Mochudi.

One of the new projects for 2015   involves a Chinese medical team coming to Botswana to perform medical check-ups in rural areas. “We don’t have too much money, but we have a tradition of reaching out to people around us, sharing with them the little we have; obviously with more support for our businesses, we can together with government achieve the goals of Vision 2016,” enthuses Nan.