This week, its operations in the southern part of the country temporarily came to a stand still because of a dispute over retrenchment packages. As a leading centre of counselling, it is a mystery why the organisation has reportedly failed to handle its staff's exit packages professionally. Or is it a question of the physician failing to heal himself or herself? At the very least, an organisation that has successfully prepared people to face life living with HIV/AIDS should have done better in its retrenchment exercise if what we are hearing is true. But whichever way the stand-off pans out, the fate of Tebelopele is a stark reminder of the fickle nature of donor dependency.
Tebelopele VCT finds itself in a crisis because of the flow of donor funding. If it is any consolation, Tebelopele is not the only NGO dependent on donor funding in Botswana. The anti-AIDS war in many Third World countries is overwhelmingly dependent on donor cash and without the largesse from the West it is not whether the fight would have been the success that it is. But the sad reality is that when the donor funds dry-up, certain organisations set-up directly because of the foreign cash close shop.
