Botswana

Although Botswana has achieved independence and has gone from one of the poorest nations in the African continent, its riches are not evenly distributed which results in over one-third of the population still living in poverty. Botswana is one of the most stable countries on the continent and with a per capita GDP of $3,200; the country is one of the very few African states classified as a middle-income country. The country’s economic growth rate has been one of the highest in the developing world, averaging slightly above seven percent over the past twenty years.

Although much work has been done to improve the quality of human rights in Botswana, ill-treatment of criminal suspects and excessive use of force by police forces continue to be reported. Beatings to extract information, as well as a method of punishment continue to be used commonly throughout the region. Criminal suspects have been said to have been tortured by suffocation primarily by the police. The police forces have also been reported to have used excessive force during the policing of demonstrations and when arresting suspects.

Botswana’s vaccination rates for some of the deadliest diseases in the country are above eighty-four percent nationally. And although the government of Botswana responded quickly to the recent re-emergence of polio, only about forty-percent of the population has access to proper sanitation facilities.

Cultural taboos and myths about sex and HIV are some of the many obstacles that face health care workers in the country to prevent and contain the HIV epidemic in Botswana.

Botswana is a country with one of the highest HIV rates in the world. Botswana’s HIV/AIDS epidemic is a serious problem where there are approximately eighty-five new infections a day and the population has a nineteen percent prevalence rate. The life expectancy at birth has been reduced from sixty-seven years to forty-seven years. It is reported that sixty percent of youth in Botswana have no access to youth-friendly reproductive and protective health services. It is projected that in 2010, twenty percent of all children will be orphaned by parental AIDS deaths. Experts suggest that by 2020 the life expectancy will fall below twenty years of age, with underlying implications effecting the workforce and reduction of agricultural production.

With the accelerated spread of tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases, a shortage of safe drinking water and sanitation, uncontrolled urbanization and ineffective agriculture are among some of the contributing factors to the spread of major problems throughout the country. However, the government is poorly equipped to address the mounting problems and challenges of not only the present, but the disasters of the future, lacking the most basic medical staff and supplies to help fight and prevent the current and future crises.

Botswana faces a complex humanitarian crisis that combines an economic, drought and agricultural mix of problems.

Overgrazing by the rapidly growing cattle population continues to threaten the vegetation and competing wildlife within Botswana. Approximately eighteen percent of the land in Botswana has been set aside as national parks, although the landscape is constantly changing and the country’s agricultural land taken over by seasonal winds from the west that blow sand and dust across the land.

Botswana’s southern African environment continues to be prone to drought, considering the majority of the country is located in the Kalahari desert, this poses a serious health risk to all. Not only is water scarce, the water that is present creates health risks to those who drink it. Botswana has a very limited water supply that is inadequate for its increasing population, and the nation's water shortage is exacerbated by periodic droughts. The country has 2.9 cu km of renewable water resources, forty-six percent of which is used for farming.

Due to human involvement and agriculture many of the local native species have become endangered or have become extinct. The black rhinoceros population and the African savannah elephant are being poached for their tusks. Burchell's zebra has become extinct in the region with a dozen species of bird and plants being threatened with extinction.

Botswana has improved greatly in the area of education and literacy. Its primacy school enrollment caps at around eighty percent, much higher than most other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Although with the discovery and mining of diamonds in the region the increased government revenue contributes to education. All students are guaranteed at least ten years of basic education and about half of that population attends two more years of secondary schooling. These completions can lead to a path into one of the country’s the six technical colleges or take vocational training.

The quantitative gains have not always been matched by qualitative ones. Primary schools in particular still lack resources, and the teachers are less well paid than their secondary school colleagues. The government hopes that by investing a large part of national income in education, the country will become less dependent on diamonds for its economic survival, and more dependent on its skilled workers. However, in January 2006, Botswana announced the reintroduction of school fees after two decades of free state education. Due to the country’s already low educated population rate, the requirement of private fiscal contributions will only decrease the amount of students enrolled at all levels.

The Botswana Centre for Human Rights - The Botswana Centre for Human Rights is an advocacy organization that plays a key role in the promotion and protection of Human Rights in the Botswana Society. The Centre seeks to affirm human dignity and equality of all before the law irrespective of sex, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, social status and political convictions. In pursuit of this mission, the Centre strives to inform, educate, train, counsel, mediate and research on issues of Human Rights, with specific reference to the marginalized and the disempowered in Botswana. However, due to the indivisible nature of Human Rights, BCHR's mission extends to regional and international levels.

Living with Elephants Foundation - Living With Elephants is a federally registered non-profit organization which explores the relationship between the African Elephant and people, with an emphasis on research and educational programs aimed at reducing conflict between the two species. Our programs, co-ordinated from our field office in Maun, focus on the northern regions of Botswana. We are one of the only organizations, worldwide, looking at human-elephant conflict in this way with the people who actually encounter the problems day-to-day. Since Botswana has the largest remaining free range African Elephant populations of any of the range states, we have lots at stake! Our team has one thing in common - a great desire to improve the relations between the African Elephant and people living in elephant range! We also recognize that we are not the experts on human-elephant relations, but rather facilitators for the cause.

TOP Banana - Our main focus is to provide an opportunity for Orphans & Vulnerable Children (OVCs) to develop in a drug free, crime free environment that offers shelter, education, skills, positive attitudes and personal qualities through the culture of learning and work. Our aim is for them to gain skills to become integral members of society.

Southern African Development Community - The ultimate objective of SADC is to build a Region in which there will be a high degree of harmonization and rationalization to enable the pooling of resources to achieve collective self-reliance in order to improve the living standards of the people of the region.

AFRICARE - Africare works in partnership with African communities to achieve healthy and productive societies. Africare's approach places communities at the center of development activities. Africare believes that only through strong communities can Africa feed itself, appropriately exploit its natural resources, educate, care and protect its children, promote the economic well being of African people and live in peace.

Cultural Embrace - Cultural Embrace offers life-changing volunteer and travel opportunities in several African countries. Opportunities rescuing and hand feeding wounded animals in the wild or building a school to improve the education of village children. Cultural Embrace arranges volunteer and travel opportunities in South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Cultural Embrace Projects include working at animal rehabilitation centers, mentoring at women's and youth centers, training to be a game ranger, and many more opportunities.

US Doctors For Africa - The core Mission of US Doctors For Africa is to promote the flow of volunteer physicians, nurses and other medical professionals to Africa to provide desperately needed capacity building and direct medical services to populations ravaged by disease, malnutrition and inadequate medical care. USDFA actively pursues this mission by encouraging individuals to volunteer their time and expertise to this critical humanitarian cause. The organization partners with carefully screened medical organizations in Africa and matches their needs with the available volunteer base. Our goal is to make the volunteering experience a valuable, safe and gratifying one.