Brief Botswana Presentation

The other day in class we all gave a brief presentation on the country we will be calling home in the summer. We also received some feedback, so I promise for my next presenation I will take my hands out of my pockets and slow my speech a little! I figured I might as we post my presentation as well:

Botswana Stats

- Total Area = 600 370 km
-> 6% of the area of Canada
-> Landlocked

- Population = 1 842 323 people
-> Similar land – people ratio as Canada (largely due to protected and untouched areas)
-> Capital is Gaborone with over 10% of the population living there

- Maintains one of the world’s highest economic growth rates until just the past 2 years. It has transformed itself from being one of the world’s poorest to being a middle-income country.

- Literacy rate of 81.2%. which is quite impressive for an African country [note: Canada has a LR of 99%]

Now we look at some of the reasons why Botswana is a developing country:
- Total Renewable Water Resources is 14.7 cubic km
-> 0.4% of what Canada has, making access to fresh water resources a huge environmental issue

- Under 5 mortality rate is 120 / 1000 live births (12%)
-> This is compared to 11 / 1000 live births in Canada

- Botswana daces unemployment and poverty at about 40%

- HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is at 37.3%
-> 2nd highest rated country, first being Swaziland
-> Top 19 countries for HIV prevalence all lie on the African continent

- An estimated 95 000 children have lost at least one parent due to AIDS, and instead of going to school, they become responsible to provide care to ill family and siblings… i.e. families are literally pushed into poverty.
In response, the government has set an amazing example to the rest of Africa. They have provided free therapy to the need citizens.


Just to break it down into a manageable size, I’ll paint a more personal picture using a size of 13 students (which makes up the Beyond Borders group this year):

o There would be 7 males and 6 females
o 7 of us would live in urban areas
o 11 of us would be literate
o 9 are Christians, 3 non-believers and the last is an other
o 3 of us own 60% of the wealth in the country and 3 of us own 4% of the wealth
o Maybe one us has access to the internet
o 2 of us haven’t made it past the age of 5
o 8 of us were left orphaned
o 5 of us don’t have basic sanitation
o 2 of us are hungry/malnourished
o 4 don’t have access to safe water
o 2 of us live on less than $1/day; 8 of us live on less than $2
and with respect to the 3 main diseases in Africa:
o 1 is likely to have a family member with tuberculosis
o 8 of us live in an area highly infected with malaria
o 5 of us suffer with HIV/AIDS
o ALL 13 of us feel the harsh effect of the AIDS epidemic every day of our lives

Again, these are just some high-level issues Botswana is facing. The orphaned children in Botswana is where my main interest lies and is important to the projects I will be working on during my placement, so stay tuned for another presentation on this important issue!