'Women Of Jazz' To Raise Funds For Childline

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Monday July 26, 2010 00:00

 

The jazz ensemble comprising Punah Gabasiane, Nnunu Ramagotsi, Kearoma Rantao and Nono Siile, made the announcement at a press conference held at the Golf Club last week. 

Punah described themselves as 'friends in music'.  She said they came up with their concept as women of jazz three years ago.  'We have been raising funds for charity movements by staging shows,' she said.

Punah said they are proud to have entered into a partnership with Childline.  She said they could have worked with any other organisation, but they identified Childline. 

The August 5 concert will include a dinner and each ticket for the VIP show will cost P500.

The women of jazz are going to stage another fund-raising concert for Childline at the Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) grounds in September.  She said the GICC concert would be open to everyone. 

For her part, Nnunu said they decided to raise funds for Childline because they have realised that children are the most vulnerable.  In addition they are going to organise a family fun day for the children at the Childline Centre in Gaborone.'Maybe we might even take them out to a pleasure resort,' she said.  She said they would also invite other artists to come and make the children's day a big hit.

Nnunu said they would really spoil the kids on that day.   They paint their faces and do all sorts of things just to make them feel loved. 

An official of Childline, Caroline Otto, said the centre was struggling financially because the number of children admitted to the centre has increased.

She said currently there are 20 children, which is the maximum they can accommodate at a time.  But she said they have a long waiting list. She said they provide accommodation for children aged five and below. 

The Childline official said some of the children at Childline were adopted, adding that adoption has become common.  She revealed that there is a waiting list of people who want to adopt children.

However, she pointed out the adoption process is long because they would like to do only what is best for the child.  During the press conference, it was also announced that a volunteer for Childline, Layani Makwinja was going to undertake a 437 km sponsored walk from Francistown to Gaborone to raise funds for the organisation.  Makwinja was scheduled to embark on the walk from July 17, starting in Francistown.  She intends to raise P150, 000.

Addressing the press conference, she said, her first encounter with Childline was in 2007.  'I had no idea what Childline was all about except that it was a place where children could report their parents for being ill-treated. 

That was not a particularly impressive picture but the moment I came into contact with the organisation, I had a rude awakening.   My outlook was totally altered as I came to see the kind of evils and struggles that some of Botswana's children go through,' she said.

Makwinja said it is very easy to assume child abuse as some foreign concept and an organisation like Childline is that which encourages child truancy from the comfort of their homes.  However, she said, children in Botswana go through a lot of despicable forms of violations. 

'It is not a foreign concept for children to get raped by members of their families,' she said, adding that children are enslaved under the guise of family support. 

Makwinja told journalists that children are exposed to physical abuse in its worst form.  'These very conditions exist right under our noses.  It might be the neighbour's child, your little cousin, your nephew or niece or even your child. 

The dangers that children are exposed to in Botswana are endless and without boundaries.  It was this contact with Childline Botswana that I felt compelled to volunteer my services back in 2008, and play my part in the protection of the welfare of the Botswana child,' she said.   

When she came to understand that Childline's sustainability was in question she felt that something had to be done.  Makwinja revealed that the organisation was struggling not only to meet its operational costs but also to even provide the basic necessities for the children at the place of safety.

Former Miss Botswana, Sumaiyah Marope, who also attended the press conference, is volunteering her services at Childline.  She worked with Childline even during her reign as Miss Botswana.