The children who reside at the centre are orphaned and vulnerable, with most living with HIV/AIDS. In December, the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Cheetahs Rugby Club visited the centre, as they have been doing for the past three years, to donate food parcels for the Christmas celebration. The founder, Shirley Madikwe, told The Monitor that the main focus of Gamodubu Child Care Trust is to take care of underprivileged children and has been operational for 21 years. She explained that the centre accommodates children from different parts of the country such as Tsabong, Letlhakane, Mmanoko, Mmamohiko, and a few from Gamobudu. At the moment, it is home to 47 children. “We started with one child we met in Gaborone as a street kid. Our plan was to remove children from the streets and make a better future for them. I won the Thari Ya Sechaba Award in 2009 and was awarded P30,000 which I used to build this facility,” she said. “When we started, we were not registered, but the President then Advocate Duma Boko volunteered to register our centre at Deeds of Trust when he was still an attorney.”
Madikwe said as the centre started growing, bigger challenges came their way. In June 2024, the Kweneng District Council ordered them to shut down because they didn't have hostels for the children. “I told them that we can close the facility but the challenge is the children. We have been running this place through the love of Batswana, not the government. Now that the centre has grown, you can't come and instruct us to close down. It was social workers and by-law officers accompanied by police officers. “They spent the whole week coming here. What pained me the most was when one social worker said this place is a white elephant and I told her that she was hurting God, not me simply because I am doing this out of love. I'm not benefiting anything,” she said. Madikwe explained that she had been applying for an operational licence for many years but without a response from the council. “As a woman, a mother to all these children, I'm struggling because of the authorities. All we need is a daycare centre licence because we have the Master of the High Court licence which allows us to operate. This is what pains me the most,” said the emotional Madikwe.
