Children of the Naledi Education Centre were on Friday beaming with joy after receiving text books, valued at P3 698, from the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS).
Receiving the books, Boitumelo Phama, of the Naledi Education Centre, emphasized that they really needed help at the school as they have nothing. She said the only fees that the school depends on are the fees they get from the children.
“The children are expected to pay P600 per year, and most of their parents can not afford to pay these fees. Hence we end up asking for sponsors to pay for these children,” she said.
Expressing gratitude to BOBS, Phama said that the hand that gives is more blessed than the one that receives.
She said the donation, indeed, showed that their prayers had been answered.
“It is very encouraging to see some of the people giving us this kind of gifts and we hope that others follow in your footsteps,” she stated.
Kelvin Mooya, Internal Auditor at BOBS, was also present at this event. “This is a social responsibility act and one of our important values at BOBS,” he said.
Mooya explained that they started this project last year in November and it has been running until now.
In response to the request made by the former President, Festus Mogae, to pray for organizations for the under privileged and the HIV pandemic, Mooya said BOBS took it up and started meeting every Wednesday. As they continue praying, he said they then decided to act because praying without action was yielding no results.
“We decided to do something tangible in the community, to reach out to those who are less privileged,” he stated.
Mooya said they looked for a Centre that needed help the most. “What we did, we sent a team to go around looking at the Centers that were legal and genuine not fly-by night Centers. There were three Centers that were identified and then we decided to take the Naledi Education Centre,” he revealed.
Mooya said they then looked for that thing would have a long lasting impression, something which was going to be there even after Christmas.
Through various meetings with the school management, Mooya said they decided to settle for books. Afterwards, he said they did fund-raising and bought these books. Though they did not manage to buy all the books needed by this Center, Mooya said the small donation they brought would go a long way and take the students somewhere. “We also added more value by covering and laminating these books,” he said.
Mooya appealed to other organizations to follow in their footsteps and give a helping hand to the less privileged.
