Strengthen Service Providers
There is a Setswana proverb that says ‘Kgetsi ya tsie e kgonwa ka go tshwaraganelwa’, which simply means if we work together we can achieve more.
This is one of the guiding principles here at SSI. We strive to work with other NGOs and government partners such as the Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Ministry of Health and Wellness and Ministry of Basic Education. Our goal is to ensure that children, youth and families receive every opportunity to realise their full potential. Through multi-sectoral collaboration, SSI helps advance a holistic approach by helping to strengthen a community-wide response for those that serve vulnerable children and youth.
Education
The English Literacy program assesses students’ reading levels and carries out highly effective interventions to get them reading at their required levels. In partnership with the University of Utah Reading Clinic, we expanded the English Literacy program to more than 25 primary schools in Serowe, Bobirwa, Kgatleng, Gaborone, Kang, Goodhope and Maun regions, training teachers and educators in the Breakthrough to English Course.
Capacity Building
In response to the urgent need to improve Botswana professionals’ skills in trauma counselling, we partnered with Trauma-Aid Netherlands and other private psychologists from the Netherlands to hold Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing [EMDR] training to relevant stakeholders, including psychologists, social workers with advanced degrees, law enforcement and health providers. EMDR is an evidence-based therapy that enables people to heal from symptoms that developed as a result of psychological trauma, such as an accident, theft or any kind of violence. The first group of psychologists and psychiatrists were trained in 2019 and we plan to hold additional trainings in the future.
In 2018 we implemented the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Preparedness Scorecard in the Bobirwa Sub-district. The scorecard is a set of high impact performance indicators drawn from research to monitor whether institutions that are mandated to provide sexual abuse and exploitation services to victims (such as police), have the capacity to provide optimal services. District officers responsible for teams or CSAE services use the scorecard to collect information about the status of CSAE services in their districts. They then use this information to create a benchmark for monitoring their performance in providing CSAE services and to develop plans and courses of action to improve. Since its implementation, we have seen a significant improvement in the service delivery of CSAE cases and we are looking to expand the scorecard to all parts of the country and beyond.
We also work very closely with Village Child Protection Committees in the Kgatleng district and Goodhope. Our goal is to provide additional support to help them successfully carry out their child protection roles within their villages and wards. We provide various ongoing trainings and dialogue sessions to ensure a continuous and coordinated effort to keep children safe in high-need districts.
