Diana George can smile at last

ONALENNA MODIKWA
Staff Writer | Monday August 20, 2012 00:00

 

A single mother of six, Diana found herself subjected to abject poverty and homelessness her entire life. Village leaders recalled last Saturday, during the handover of a house built for her by Sinohydro that her father, who was a Zimbabwean national, had to carry little Diana and trek all the way to Seolwane Village.

The father was not only warmly welcomed in the village, but had a compassionate local woman who raised Diana with him. Hence she has no recollection of her natural mother and has never experienced the warmth of a mother's love.

As if it was a curse cast upon her, Diana never made it in life, living in abject poverty until now when she is a grown up woman with six children.

Thankfully, village authorities were aware of her plight all along, and when she came of age, they helped her acquire the national identity card (Omang), later enrolled her in the programme for destitute people and even allocated her a plot.However, being poor, Diana could not develop the plot and had to be billeted in a VDC house with her family.

However, as though star-crossed, one day she found herself packing her paltry belongings and heading back to her empty plot, for Diana had been evicted by the Village Development Committee.

Once there, she erected a makeshift mud hut to for herself and her brood of six. After a while, the Palapye Sub Council's Social Welfare Department gave her a tent to somewhat ease congestion in the 'main house.'

Diana and her children struggled in this manner until recently when Chinese construction company, Sinohydro, in Palapye to build Lotsane Dam, put a more durable roof above her head.

Synohydro was responding to President Ian Khama's housing appeal. During the handover of the house, Kgosi Mhaladi of Seolwane told how Diana and her father had come to Botswana when she was only two months old and how he eventually helped her father obtain Botswana citizenship in 2001.

'One woman here fostered her until she became the woman that she is today,' Kgosi Mhaladi recalled.

'Because of her plight, she was identified to benefit from Sinohydro, beating another candidate who was also nominated for the company's beneficence.'

In its response to the President's housing appeal, Sinohydro pledged to build 10 houses for the poor, and Diana was one of the first people to benefit. Another was wheelchair-bound Omphile Sekolobo of Moremi Village who used to live in a dilapidated mud hut.

The Senior Assistant Council Secretary Palapye Sub Council, Maipelo Selatolo, promised that the council would connect water and a septic tank to compliment the efforts of Sinohydro.

'It is a good thing for us as a council to witness companies meeting us halfway in providing our people with basic needs,' Selatolo said at the handover of a house to Sekolobo.

Also speaking at the ceremony in Moremi last Saturday, the MP for Tswapong North, Prince Maele, said Sinohydro was contributing towards fulfilment of the Vision '16 pillar of a compassionate and caring nation.

As it turned out, people were not the only beneficiaries of Sinohydro's social responsibility programme. VDCs, schools as well as the council's social and community development department also benefited. Maele said the company's gesture would further strengthen the already firm relations between Botswana and China, noting that Sinohydro was the first company to make donations upon completion of projects in his constituency.

'I am a part of those who have witnessed history in the making because this gesture by Sinohydro will remain indelible in the minds of local communities for generations to come,' he said.