In this Issue Message from the Country Director 1 Sites: Past and Present 2 2012 Achievements 3 President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 4 Assignments and Typical Outcomes Under the 5 HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Project Cross-Sector Programming Priorities 6 Training Continuum and Language Achievements 7 Peace Corps Botswana In The News 8 Thank You To Our Partners 10 Peace Corps Botswana Annual Report 2012 Message from the Country Director Peace Corps was honored in 2012 to have throughout their communities. Their work former Presidents Masire and Mogae spans an incredible breadth of activities. join some of our conferences and events. Some will be conducting health education Americans continue to enjoy learning from talks in their villages and mobilizing people these superb leaders; they are inspirations to get tested for HIV or to get circumcised. for me personally, and for our staff and Others will be working with guidance and Volunteers. Equally thrilling were visits by counseling staff in schools to infuse life HE President Seretse Khama Ian Khama skills lessons into classes, or facilitating and former US President George W. Bush to PACT (peer approach to counseling teens) the site of one of our Volunteers – Gabane or “Delay Early Sex” clubs, or GLOW (girls Home Based Care. President Khama and his and guys leading our world) camps. Others cabinet performed a morning of community will be working with Women’s Affairs It is with real pleasure that Peace Corps service at this center for orphans and Department staff to address issues of Botswana releases its 2012 Annual vulnerable children; the garden they helped gender based violence (GBV), or training Report. It has been quite a year – filled expand continues to provide nutritious health workers on providing compassionate with accomplishments, excitement, and food and much needed income to the support to victims of GBV. Still others will challenging but rewarding work. 2012 saw center. President and Laura Bush met with be helping communities plant gardens or over 130 Peace Corps Volunteers living over 20 Peace Corps Volunteers and staff construct homes for the destitute. Some modestly and proudly serving in over 100 members at the site, to witness first-hand PCVs will be teaching computer skills and towns and villages across every corner of the work being done by our Volunteers. In working to improve systems and processes Botswana. addition to touring the facility and reading in their offices. Other will be working to the children, President Bush was happily to expand arts and crafts businesses to A historic milestone has been the completion surprised to be presented with a cake and to preserve local culture and generate income, of 40 years of active service in Botswana! listen to the children sing in celebration of or will be engaging youth in healthy sports Since our arrival here in 1966, through his birthday! activities, or organizing to bring latrines the ensuing decades, and upon our return to a needy village community, or helping in 2003 after a brief absence, Peace arrange paralympic events or other Corps has been a steadfast partner in services for people living with disabilities, development, and in promoting peace, or screening instructive health education friendship and understanding between films, or holding youth and adult HIV our great nations. To ensure our efforts support groups, or otherwise helping to are focused on addressing Botswana’s build local capacity to more effectively true priorities, Peace Corps works in respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in close collaboration with the National Botswana. The list goes on and on! AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), and Ministerial and community I’m very proud of the work being done by partners. Peace Corps Volunteers; it is making a big impact. In 2012, Peace Corps Botswana The relationship between Peace Corps Volunteers collectively reached over Volunteers (PCVs) and the people of 20,000 Batswana with individual and Botswana is family-like. Volunteers small group HIV prevention activities! commence service living with local Many of the individuals reached were families for two months, to develop trained to conduct additional prevention language skills and truly learn about activities, hence multiplying the impact the culture here. We owe a debt of and ensuring sustainability. Other people gratitude most recently to the people were reached many times with different of Kanye, for opening their hearts and interventions, for example through homes to our Volunteers in training. weekly meetings or multi-day camps. Many Volunteers continue to live on Peace Corps interventions run deep, family compounds once they settle and often change or save lives. We’re in their villages for their two years confident that 2013 will be an equally of service. You can also spot them impactful year, as we continue to work at Kgotla and Village Development Photo by Shealah Craighead / The Bush Center towards Botswana’s goal of no new Committee meetings, along with infections by 2016. funerals and weddings. And just as Of course, most of the time we aren’t families care for children, most Volunteers occupied with such high profile events. teach, coach, or work with youth – helping On any given day, Peace Corps Volunteers them to stay healthy and develop into are quietly performing their duties – in Botswana’s leaders of tomorrow. Tim Hartman - Country Director schools, clinics, government offices, non-governmental organizations, and Peace Corps/Botswana 1 Peace Corps Worldwide Goals Sites: Past and Present In 2012, Volunteers lived in over 100 communities spread throughout Botswana. • Helping the people of interested countries They also worked in many neighboring villages, easily touching lives in at least 300 communities. Placement of our Volunteers is prioritized in smaller rural in meeting their need for trained men and villages; giving our Volunteers exposure to grassroots community development and women opportunities for mobilization, especially around HIV/AIDS prevention. • Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of peoples served • Helping promote a better understanding of Kasane other peoples on the part of Americans okavango CHOBE Ngamaseri Okavango xaudum Swamps NGAMMILAND Nokaneng Maun Tsau Nata Sehitwa Boteti Lake Ngami Makgadikgadi (salt Pans) Rakops Francistown Xau Orapa Letlhakane CENTRAL Serule GHANZI Serowe Selebi - Phikwe Mamuno Sefophe Lotsane Palapye Okwa Mahalapye KWENENG Molepolole Ngotwane Mochudi KGATLENG Marico KGALAGADI Jwaneng Khakhea Gaborone Kanye South East Werda Moselebe Molopo Tsabong Bokspits Molopo In their own Words: Non-Governmental Organization Volunteers, Ross S. and Heidi P. In Botswana, one-third of women between the ages of 25-29 are HIV-positive. For those ages 30-35, the num- ber is almost 50%. There are a myriad of reasons why young women are considered an at-risk group, and lack of economic empowerment is one of the biggest. With the help of the kgosi (chief), the Village Development Committee (VDC), a social worker and other community members, my wife and I supported one young woman in starting her own fashion design company. We were both NGO Volunteers at the time, serving in the Ngamiland District from 2010-2012. We helped this woman to attain basic equipment, learn computer skills and develop partnerships with nearby tourist initiatives – all of which helped her small business expand. Now the woman offers sewing and business Tim Hartman - Country Director management training for other women, including those with disabilities. She has become an entrepreneur and has so far hired two other women to work for her company. In 2013, she is slated to attend the State Departments International Visitor Leadership Program in Washington D.C. on a nomination from Peace Corps Botswana. Even though we are back in America now, she ll remain an inspiration to us, and a great friend. 2012 Achievements Peace Corps/Botswana Volunteers Batswana Reached with HIV/AIDS Prevention Interventions worked with Batswana counterparts to 4,585 reach over 20,000 Batswana with HIV 4,500 3,970 prevention messages and interventions. 4,000 1,495 service providers, such as teachers, 3,394 nurses, health education assistants, lay 3,500 3,465 counselors, and social workers were 2,739 reached to improve their knowledge or 3,000 2,208 skills with regards to prevention. 2,500 Volunteers worked with 578 2,000 organizations to improve their capacity 1,500 to address HIV/AIDS, through work such as strategic planning, meeting 1,000 facilitation and documentation, 500 information technology improvements, Females Males Males 0 Females 25+ years 25+ years database establishment, or evidence- Males under 15-24 years Females under 15-24 years based planning processes followed. 15 years 15 years Orphans and Vulnerable Children, People Living with HIV/AIDS, and caregivers also benefited from Volunteer interventions, including 8,533 individuals and service providers. Further, our Volunteers worked with 300 communities to implement HIV/ AIDS related activities, far beyond their official 100 site placements - in order to get out the HIV/AIDS messages far and wide. The graph offers a breakdown of the age ranges of people reached in an array of settings, from schools to clinic In their own Words: waiting areas, and from football pitches Clinic Volunteer, Susan B. to conference rooms. I have been serving in Eastern District since 2010, helping the community make strides in supporting disabled youth by bringing attention to a 13-year-old girl named Lorato Capacity Building (for privacy the name has been changed). "Lorato" lives with two disabilities - spina bifida (a birth defect where Improved Systems: the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth) and clubfeet. With disability services still in their early 578 Organizations had improved systems to development stages in Botswana, Lorato struggled with no respond to the demands of the HIV/AIDS support for her disabilities and was not attending school.