NEWS FLASH
SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE ASSOCIATION
OF
DECEMBER 2007
Greetings and good
wishes from all at SOS Children’s Villages Botswana. We do hope we find you, your family
and friends all in good health. 2007 has been an excellent year for us and we
thank all our donors and friends who have supported us so well - have given
generously both financially and in kind. Our two Villages have grown - Tlokweng and
We are able to continue the work of
our founder, Hermann Gmeiner – a most wonderful man. A
man who was committed to helping children in need - children who after the Second
World War had lost their homes, their security and their families. He saw their
plight - their need to be loved, and started with just one house, then just one
Village and with devoted determination continued to gather support from donors
all over the world. As a result we today have 458 Villages around the world…
Hermann Gmeiner
wrote on the topic - What is Love? “Love means so much! It is a power that rules us, a force
that moves us. And what else? Love is from God. And it
is the fulfillment of our lives. What could be more important, more central in
our lives between our birth and our death than the experience of love. It is in the infinitely varied possibilities of giving
and receiving love that we can be human. I believe that those who hate, those
whose lives are self-centred, those
who neither feel nor care cannot know what true humanity means. Their way to
the “Soul of the Universe” remains closed. Everything that makes us human and
raises us above the beasts, all that is good, strong, and beautiful is grounded
in love. It is love that enables our SOS Children’s Village mothers to accept
abandoned children as if they were their own. Why? Their love is joy that there
are these children. Love is joy, joy in the existence of others, of our
fellow-men, joy that they live. In this joy, thanks to this joy – and thus
through love – each one of us is united with every other, and greater than we
would be, were we alone”.
We - SOS Children’s Villages
Botswana are certainly not alone, we are very much supported from around the globe
and from within our own country by much love and much kindness. Just last week
we received a cheque from Mr
Jeffrey Bookbinder and his family for P50 000 – he had been blessed with some
good fortune and chose to share this with the children of SOS, monthly he too
contributes P1000. Yesterday Dalumi
Our Villages are regularly visited
by Schools. Recently
OUR NEW VILLAGE SEROWE – Everybody at SOS is excited about
this new development, but none more excited than the children who are waiting
in a temporary house on transit to the new Village! Mr
Molefe Madikwe will run Serowe – a veteran Village Father of over ten years… this
will be history repeating itself, as he opened the Francistown
Village in 1988. He says “It is an understatement to say it is hard work to
open a new Village, it is also an understatement to say it is exciting!” This
is an emotional move for Madikwe as he leaves behind
in
STAFF Lydia Mhlelu,
currently Social Worker at our Tlokweng Village has
been appointed as Village Director for SOS Francistown
and is thoroughly looking forward to this new challenge which she takes up in
January next year. Mr Bikie
Morebodi is the new Village Father in Tlokweng. He comes from a teaching background and says “SOS
is all about taking care of children, giving them love, care, guidance and
support as they grow – there is nothing that makes me happier than to see the
smiling face of a child”. We are delighted to have Bikie
on our Team. He has replaced Boipuso Bigman who now heads up our Outreach Family Strengthening
and Reclisa Programmes. Mr Motshwari Kitso
is Deputy National Director and operates from
the National Office.
FROM OUR KG PRINCIPAL MILDRED – SOS Kindergarten Francistown prides itself with providing a high standard of
pre-school education to children aged between 2 and 6 years. We have four
classrooms each with a maximum of 25 children. Each group has 1 educator who practises a unique rotation method to occupy children using
a “Learning through Play” principle. Educators plan daily activities appropriate
for the children’s ages based on a chosen weekly theme. Activities include
music & movement, painting, drawing & colouring,
block play, puzzles, storytelling, nursery rhymes and outdoor play. The
Kindergarten sponsors 5 deserving children from the Local Social Welfare
Department - our way of giving back to the community.
WE ARE SO PROUD! Fifteen year old Khumiso,
one of two youth selected from 350 participants, will be representing
On this positive note we end and
again say thank you to all for your generous support.
On these brief pages we have
mentioned but a few of the many people, many places, companies, organizations and
governments that have helped us both in large and in small ways. Please know we
are most appreciative and very grateful to each and everyone who has
contributed to our Organisation and in by doing so
contributed to the well-being and hoped for good futures of the children in our
care. May this Season for you be blessed with much joy and may the New Year be
abundant in many ways. Thank you for caring and thank you for helping us care.
SOS Children’s Villages Botswana, P O Box 30396, Tlokweng,