Battlefront Arts and Stem nurture young talent
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday March 27, 2020 15:47
In an interview, founder Philadelphia Motladiile said the organisation targets children aged between one and 16 years-old.
She added that they chose the age group because they realised that teenagers aged more than 16 years have real life experiences and can make decisions on what they want to do with their lives.
“Our event has motivational speakers, stem engineers from different fields who can empower children with different talents. We want children who can be able to assemble a cellphone looking at the instructions we gave them. We also children who can be able to partake in different international talent competitions such as music, drama and other talent shows at a tender age. We want children who can play different musical instruments which is rare locally,” she said.
Motladiile also explained that many local child talent-grooming institutions were mainly sports oriented. She said unlike other countries, Botswana lacks behind in grooming children’s talent. She further noted the situation explains why the country does not have children’s movies. She also said every person has intellectuality, gift and talents that they could later use after not doing well academically to put food in their table.
Furthermore, Motladiile who is also an author said she knew that she was a talented writer from a young age. She started writing books at Standard 4. She said she later realised that she was late in sharing her work. But she did not sit back as she later decided to publish her first two books at 21 years of age. Her books are now used in local primary schools yet she did not have tertiary school qualifications when she started her writing vocation.
At Battlefront Arts and Stem Conservative, Motladiile said they do not teach subjects like Setswana, Social Studies and other subjects theories. But they focus on practicals. She said looking at Agriculture for instance, they teach children how to rear animals. She added that they wanted children to freely do what they love.
At the institution, they do not allow parents to stay around in order to avoid them from restricting organisers to allow their children explore their talents. She added that there are many things that children are talented on and could not explore them because their parents forbid them from doing that that is why they want to cut that mentality.
“Our activities includes stem, arts and crafts such as tie and dye, music, painting, making chairs and jewellery, sewing to mention are few. We are currently working with other organisations outside the country that have the same vision as us. We are benchmarking from them and will in future take our children to compete with their peers on an international platform. This can motivate and give them exposure while still young,” she said.
She disclosed that they have partnered with Crystal Place Hotel near Maharaj Conference Centre in Gaborone. Entrance fee is P350 for the whole day (from 8am till 5pm). The fee includes food and materials that the children will use the whole day. Battlefront uses qualified early childhood teachers as facilitators and others who are exposed in different arts careers.