Community Engagement

In the spirit of “Botho” as our name suggests, community development is at the cornerstone of BU’s values. The BU Community Initiative was launched by Dr. Sheela Raja Ram as part of BU’s 25th Anniversary celebrations in September 2022. The BU Community Initiative is a non-profit organization that serves our local community as well as our students and alumni. This noble initiative will formalize all community service work by funding student scholarships, graduate entrepreneurial support, community development projects, and research to develop solutions to local community challenges.

Students are encouraged to participate in community engagement activities to develop their social traits of being socially responsible and learning the spirit of volunteering. The university over the years and across all its campuses conducted many community engagement activities. For the past couple of years, the University has adopted two villages in Botswana namely Gakgatla and Kubung in the Kweneng District and directed all their community engagement initiatives towards them. The idea was to ensure focus and long-term impact and sustainable community development.

Gakgatla Village Community Engagement Initiatives: In its endeavour to pursue its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) obligations, Botho University adopted a rural (Gakgatla) village about 50 km from Gaborone. The village comprises mainly poor families, living way beyond the poverty datum line and further the youth population in the village is full of school dropouts with high cases of teenage pregnancies. Student Affairs and Alumni Department (SAAD) has over the past couple of years conducted many focused interventions for the village of Gakgatla to assist with some of the challenges in the community.

Kubung Primary School initiative: Botho University adopted the school after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Basic Education on the 6th of February 2018 under the Adopt a School Initiative. The project is currently running till the year 2023 with the scope extended to include all contributors to the quality of teaching and learning in the effort to improve learner performance. Since its adoption, the University implemented the following activities:

• Botho University Multimedia Systems students designed the school logo as part of their practice work.
• BU provided academic support to the 2018 Standard 5 Class until they completed their Standard 7 in 2020.
• Monitor learners’ progress in improving their grades, targeting a Ministry set target of 80% pass (A, B, C) by the year 2020. This target was exceeded by 3.3%, achieving an 83.3% pass (ABC) and lowering Grade D from the initial 42 to 13.9%.
• Supported the School with library resources such as reading books and revision books.
• Provided three (3) remedial lessons monthly.
• Provides sanitary towels to needy students.
• Trained 8 Kubung Primary school teachers on the use of ABACUS, a system that gives a learner an opportunity to hone their own skills and eventually develop expertise in calculations.
• Microsoft Excel training to teachers for improving report compilation and result in analysis and comparison.
• Design and printing of prize-giving certificates and completion certificates for Reception classes and printing of end-of-term examinations question papers for all class levels.

As part of the 25th Anniversary event celebrations in Septmeber 2022,BU continued its commitment to community development by donating to the following communities :

• Gakgatla Community P50, 000
• Kubung Primary School P35, 000
• Lesotho Community Project P25, 000