All about Botswana:

So it’s about time that I brief you all about Botswana, the country that I will be calling home for the summer.
Botswana is in the south-central part of Africa, bordering South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia. In size, Botswana is about double that of the state of Arizona.
Despite the fact that most of the country is desert, Botswana has become one of the most popular places in Africa to travel, with many of the most exotic African animals making Botswana their home.
With some slightly more positive statistics in comparison to other developing countries, Botswana has an infant mortality rate of 44/1000 [imagine that in comparison to Canada’s infant mortality rate of 4.6/1000]. The average life expectancy has reached 50.1 years. Within the continent of Africa, Botswana does maintain a good literacy rate of 81.2%.
In terms of communication, there is good news! The official language of Botswana is English! However, there is some bad news... only 2% of the population speak it. The more common language among Botswanans is Setswana, with 78% of the peoples speaking it.

“Although Botswana is rich in diamonds, it has high unemployment and stratified socioeconomic classes... regardless; Botswana remains one of the wealthiest and most stable countries on the continent. Although Botswana’s economic outlook remains strong, the devastation that AIDS has caused threatens to destroy the country’s future. In 2001, Botswana had the highest rate of HIV infection in the world (22% of the people). With the help of international donors, however, it launched an ambitious national campaign that provided free antiviral drugs to anyone who needed them, and by March 2004, Botswana’s infection rate had dropped significantly! BUT, with 37.5% of the population infected, the country now remains on the brink of catastrophe.”

Without going into too much information regarding my job, I will be working extensively with “orphaned” youth, so I would like to take this opportunity to discuss this terrible phenomenon that we see in Botswana. Orphaned youth are those children who are left parent-less and role model-less through the death of their parents (most commonly caused by HIV AIDS). These youth not only have the burden of attempting to raise themselves on their own, but also their younger siblings. Left with no money, school is often not an option for them. Left with the memories of watching their parents suffer, motivation to even get out of bed is hard to find. We see an effect where almost half of the households are being ran by children between the ages of 9 and 15, and with an HIV infection rate as high at 37.5%, Botswana is drowning in this horrible effect.

So I will end this introduction to Botswana there... I am sorry that this blog may have a negative note attached to it, however I want to paint an accurate picture of the realities that the people of Botswana face. I also hope that, while these facts are excruciating to read, you realize that things can be done to change that! So again, I encourage you to continue to follow my blog to see what I will be doing, and what you can be doing, to help out!

Until next time,

Matt.

PS. All of the Beyond Border students will be writing blogs on their experiences as well, so please, Please, PLEASE check out what they have to say!






http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107353.html