Phumaphi revives 'Ditsela tsa Itshetso'

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Friday January 22, 2010 00:00

One such project is an organisation by the name of  'Ditsela tsa Itshetso', which was her pet project when she was a Member of Parliament for Francistown East. The organisation, in which she grouped local women, identified underprivileged members of the society and then found ways of assisting them.

It fizzled out while she was in Washington, United States where she was pursuing an international career with the World Bank.

'I am now back home and I am busy reviving the organisation. Already we have identified two destitute families in Borolong and we intend to help them out,' she said in an interview with Mmegi.

On that day, she had just arrived from visiting the families to assess how they can be assisted.

Perhaps due to the preliminary stages of this assessment of the families, she did not elaborate on the form of assistance they will give to the families.

Charitable organisations in Botswana have been known to build homes for destitute families as well as to provide them with food.

Phumaphi said she was in the process of identifying other projects, even though she decried the fact that a tannery that she used to see in Francistown is no longer operating.

'I was hoping it would be running as I intended to bring experts in leatherworks to come and train locals who would in turn use their skills to establish factories that manufacture footwear,' she said.

Phumaphi said she was also looking at 'one or two' other things to do for Francistown and its environs, but she was not willing to divulge what she intended as yet.

'Give me a month or two, I will be ready to say what it is I want to do,' she said.