Jun 4, 2021 | Events, News
In Botswana, many children grow up in challenging home environments. They face a risk of neglect, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Although parents play a key role in creating a safe and conducive home environment for their children and protect them from harm, child abuse most often occurs in the home. As a response to these concerning issues, we developed the film Dithunya Tsa Rona “Our Flowers” to help teach and promote positive parenting throughout the country. We’ll be premiering the docudrama on June 16th, day of the African Child.
The film aims to improve parenting in Botswana and create safe homes for children, free from abuse. TV shows and drama series have proven to be effective tools in addressing and challenging social norms and creating positive behaviour change around societal issues. The 1-hour docudrama combines drama with documentary-style discourse, and features famous local actors and experts. The plot is a fictional story about a social worker investigating an increase in teenage pregnancies in a community in Botswana. During her search to discover the reasons behind this increase, she gets to know different families that all face various struggles of their own. However, they have one thing in common: what they do and how they parent affects the safety and well-being of their children.
Key messages and Positive Parenting
The film’s tagline is “Loving families nurture and protect.” The most important messages are:
- Caregivers play a critical role in preventing, stopping and reporting child abuse
- To create nurturing environments, caregivers can give one-on-one time and attention, positive guidance and create open communication.
- Call to action: Small changes have a huge impact! You can make a difference today.
It brings forward actionable steps for creating safer environments for children as well as positive parenting tips to mitigate risk of neglect as well as emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. SSI will also be sharing positive parenting tips on our website soon, so stay tuned!
Reaching every Parent in Botswana
We want to ensure that every parent in Botswana gets the opportunity to receive the key messages from the docudrama. It will be aired on national television and streamed live on our Facebook page. After the premiere, it will also be shown in communities accompanied by dialogue sessions. We will also provide viewers with the opportunity to join our Pinagare parenting training groups for anyone who wants to further enhance their parenting skills.
You can help us reach every parent in Botswana! By contributing your support, you increase our distribution and visibility to ensure this film is available in as many homes as possible. Please go to our GofundMe page to make a contribution and help spread the word about this groundbreaking project. https://gofund.me/060472fa
Contributing Partners
We’re so grateful for the many partners who helped make this project come to life! They include the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Botswana Police Service, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, CSOs, UNICEF and USAID. The project is co-funded by the European Union, Stéphanie Lacroix Humanitarian Fund and FACET.
Mar 29, 2021 | News, Program Updates
For the last three years, SSI has served as a sub-partner for PCI on a ground-breaking USAID (United States Agency for International Development) initiative to combat the spread of HIV among young people. During this time, SSI implemented community-based programs to meet the needs of Orphaned and Vulnerable Care (OVC) and Adolescent Girls & Young Women (AGYW) in various districts throughout Botswana.
We are proud to share that USAID has since selected SSI to begin receiving direct funding for this program as a result of our ability to not only fulfil but exceed the expectations of our previous role in order to meet the needs of our community. In February 2020 we started implementing the “Breaking Barriers to an HIV Free Generation” program in the Kgatleng and Goodhope Districts. This is in order to continue our vital work to prevent new HIV infections and reduce vulnerability among OVC and AGYW.
About the Project
The project aims to prevent new HIV infections and reduce vulnerability among orphaned vulnerable children and adolescent girls and young women through Healthy, Safe, Schooled and Stable domains. Our community service providers assess each family’s needs and provide the following interventions:
- Health services
- Life skills and sexual reproductive health education
- Youth financial literacy with the Aflateen curriculum
- Caregiver financial literacy through the WE-GROW program
- Parent-child communication interventions to improve positive parenting and reduce child abuse, exploitation or neglect through the Pinagare program
In a short but auspicious two-hour ceremony with the United States Ambassador and other government officials present, we were presented with a cheque. Which will fund the program for the next coming three years, alongside four other local organisations.
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Project Concern International (PCI Botswana) for assisting us in our transition process to receive direct funding, and to the government of United States for funding our program. We look forward to continuing to breaking barriers to an HIV free Botswana!
Watch a short message from our Executive Director about the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmSagjjd-58
Mar 5, 2021 | Beneficiaries, Events, News
This past weekend we had the pleasure of celebrating over 90 participants graduating from The Wings of Independence programme, funded by the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) Embassy of Canada to Zimbabwe, Angola, and Botswana and the Pinagare parenting programme under the Allan Gray award. The exciting day was filled with graduation smiles and hearts beaming with pride as our graduates sealed their months of hard work and learning with the certification and awarding ceremony.
During the awarding ceremony, our participants from the The Wings of Independence program, were divided into three groups at the beginning of the programme with the teams all competing for the biggest award. Team Blue emerged victorious as the winners of the competition, excelling in attendance, teamwork and participation. The winners walked away with awesome financial literacy-themed prizes including money boxes and piggybanks for their personal savings!
As part of the proceedings, the graduates shared their testimonies and biggest takeaways from the programme. Neoyame Ntungwana, the representative speaker for the youth beneficiaries said: “I’m a participant of both the Wings of Independence programme and Pinagare. It honestly wasn’t easy; the road was tough especially having to sit with my mom during the discussion of certain topics in the programmes. However, both my mother and I have really benefitted from this programme. There are certain things that I would have never been able to talk to my mother about. But since this programme, our relationship has improved and we now openly communicate a lot more with each other which has really helped build and strengthen our relationship as mother and daughter.”
The day’s festivities continued with fun and engaging games and activities; as well as a word of encouragement from the guest speaker, Mr. Moriti Kenyataa who encouraged our participants to work hard, stay focused and never give up on their dreams.
A hearty congratulations to all of our graduates! We look forward to seeing you achieve your goals!
Feb 28, 2021 | Beneficiaries, Events, News
Stepping Stones International would like to thank the Japanese Embassy for providing SSI with a building dedicated towards providing psychosocial support and counseling for our young people.
The signing ceremony was graced by the H.E Ambassador of Japan to Botswana, Mr HOSHIYAMA Takashi, the Embassy of Japan in Botswana team and the SSI Executive Director, Lisa Jamu.
ありがとうございます /arigatou gozaimasu / re a leboga / thank you
Feb 24, 2021 | News
In February, the French Ambassador to Botswana; H. E. Laurence BEAU paid a visit to our centre in Mochudi for the first time. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about how our French Embassy funded Freedom from Fear project was fairing. The project is our organization’s response to the increasing spike of Gender Based Violence and child abuse incidents in Botswana. Over 67% of women in Botswana have experienced abuse, which is double the global average.
During the national lockdown, brought about by Covid19 in 2020, many more incidents of abuse surfaced, thus urging Stepping Stones International to respond to this national crisis. The Freedom from Fear project increases awareness about Gender Based Violence. It also ensures we have trained personnel responding to cases as they arise and provides psycho-social support to victims of abuse.
As part of the project we also teach sexual reproductive health to adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), which includes making referrals to relevant service providers. Participants that are part of SSI’s after school program also receive private counselling sessions with our psychologist.
During her visit, Ambassador Beau engaged with SSI participants to learn more about how this project has impacted their lives. This project is made possible by the generous support of the Botswana French Embassy.
Watch the sit down interview between the ambassador and our executive director; Ms Lisa Jamu here discussing the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgMqC02vc5I
Feb 18, 2021 | Beneficiaries, Events, News
On Thursday, the SSI Education Department in collaboration with the United States of America Embassy in Botswanalaunched the English Access Microscholarship Program for SSI participants.
The US State Department funded English Access Program helps participants with enhancing English Language skills and learning more about American culture and Botswana culture. The focus topics for this cohort are NASA and space and climate change. The event was graced by the United States Ambassador to Botswana, Ambassador Mr Craig Cloud, the US Embassy team, Kgatleng Education Regional Director Mr Mothusi James, SSI participants, parents, and staff.
During his motivational speech, Ambassador Mr Craig Cloud congratulated the participants on enrolling for the year English Access Program and encouraged them to work hard and give their best to their studies.
Congratulations English Access Class of 2024 on your amazing journey ahead!
