I am writing to update you on our progress over the past few months on implementing initiatives and building our Partner base. First off, for the first time ever, I have the occasion to write more than once in a 12 month period! This, in and of itself, signals progress. The most notable change is the energy that our new Development Coordinator, Wame Mhaphi, brings to Setso Project. In defiance of a broken leg, Wame has been working full time, pounding the pavement (and dirt) to coordinate our latest batch of projects. She has coordinated with Village Chiefs and schools to lay the foundation for Edna's Educators (see details below), which has brought in approximately $2,000 to date for tutoring support for struggling students, and has figured out the logistics for starting Village Movie Nights, which will be a relatively low-input, high impact project that brings entertainment alternatives to youth in rural villages throughout Botswana (see details below).

In addition to Wame's ground work, we have a number of exciting developments to share with you.

In partnership with the Botswana-Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre of Excellence, Grandma’s Pediatric AIDS Initiative has been established to honor the first 100 years of the life of Dr. Elizabeth Chittenden Lowry, beloved grandmother and retired pediatrician extraordinaire. In Botswana, where pediatric AIDS is prevalent, poverty creates a barrier to ongoing care. Many of the 2,000 plus children who receive care at the Baylor Centre fail to make appointments due to the inability to cover the price of public transport. Many travel for over an hour to make appointments (some several hours). Transport typically costs around 2 dollars per visit, but the cost of a missed appointment can be resistance and, ultimately, treatment failure.

Read more about Grandma and the work we are planning in her honor.

We are thrilled to add the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Centre of Excellence (COE) to our list of partners. We have partnered with Botswana-Baylor to carry out Grandma's Pediatric AIDS Initiative (detailed above) and we hope that this is just the first of many avenues of collaboration between Setso Project and COE. The COE supports children with HIV and their families through comprehensive care (including careful clinical care, home visits, and nutrition and counseling support). They also support several capacity-building initiatives, including health professional education (including physician mentorship) and layperson skill-building (including school teacher education, community-based HIV support, and adolescent-focused forums). After six years of operation, Botswana’s COE is serving as a model in comprehensive pediatric AIDS care for similar centers in Lesotho, Swaziland, Uganda, Malawi, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania. ~ Learn More

Rebecca Lowry: How do you see the HIV/AIDS epidemic?

Wame Mhaphi: What torments me every day is that people are still dying here in Botswana ... People die because of poor adherence to their medication. The other problem is that people on medication don’t have enough to eat.  I honestly don’t know how to help these people.  The rate of people who are sick has dropped now and that is wonderful. But for those who are HIV positive there is still the problem that they try hard to get food rations, even showing up at the Social Workers’ office with a note from their doctor saying that they need extra nutrition, but the Social Workers can’t help them. They tell them ‘because you are not bed ridden, because you can go out and get a job, I can’t give you food rations’.  The government only provides rations to people who are bed-ridden. If you are healthy enough to work you don’t qualify.

RL: What about prevention for teenagers? Are kids getting the message?

WM: There is education. But teenagers continue to do the same behaviors, they don’t change and it seems that they don’t care.  Nothing has changed.  According to me, life is a very important gift, you should protect it.  Some people don’t see the importance of good health and staying alive. They lose hope and they don’t get enough support. They think ‘maybe if I die it’s better. Life is a burden.’  You may try to help a person find hope but at the end of the day he is the only one who can decide.  All you can do is provide them with the skills to improve their lives. I try to tell people, ‘Maybe you can go to church and pray, plant a garden in the back yard’.  There is nothing you can do except to encourage them. I feel that I should be a living example so that they can copy what I’m doing.  If that person I talk to doesn’t manage to help himself, sometimes it is very very hard on me.  But if you don’t give up, out of 10, you may reach one or two souls.  At least you can be proud of that.

RL: What can give people more hope?

WM: You see, many people blame themselves for being HIV positive. They think ‘I did something wrong’ and they don’t see why they should consult other people about their problems.  I think people should be helped to come out of that pressure.  I tell people ‘even the doctors are HIV-positive, and they have all the information!  It can happen to anyone’.  If we help people to accept all the challenges in life, if you can accept who you are, mentally, it heals you. Even your immune system improves. Like me, I can even meet the President with 10 Pula in my pocket. Maybe he has 3,000 Pula.  But we are all equal in the eyes of the lord.

We feel the economic crisis. Debswana [the diamond company] is cutting jobs.  Times are hard. Sometimes I think ‘If there was a hole in the earth you could just want to get inside and stay there until it passes’. But I believe all this is going to pass. If people lack this spiritual support, if they are spiritually bereft, they can’t see past today.

RL: Who taught you to take life as a gift?

WM:  [laughing] Myself, and the holy bible.  Since I started going to church, my life has changed. Even other people can tell that I have changed. They look at me and say, ‘Do you have a job now? You are so happy,’ and I tell them that I have a good job, my job is to care for other people, to tell people they should have hope.  God had given me this wonderful job.

Link to Edna's Educators

Link to Village Movie Nights

We have been making slow but steady progress on getting Edna’s Educators up and running.  Wame has been navigating her way through the formalities required of implementing a development project such as this in rural Botswana, including meeting with the Chief of Gabane to introduce our concept and meeting with village school officials.  Based on this initial ground work we have been advised by community leaders to kick off the tutoring program by announcing an invitation to parents to sign their children up for Edna’s Educators. Depending on the level of interest (which we anticipate will, at least initially, exceed our capacity) we will then decide on a fair means of allocating spots in the program. This will likely involve either a first-come-first-served process with a waiting list, or a rotation of students on a weekly or monthly basis.

Thus far we have raised approximately $2,000 for Edna’s Educators, which we estimate will cover the costs of weekly tutoring sessions for eight students for a year or 16 students for six months. While we are absolutely thrilled by the support thus far, we hope that you will help us secure at least twice this amount before we launch the program.  Edna’s birthday is coming up again on May 11th and we hope you will all take this opportunity to celebrate her once more with a generous donation.
In order to encourage ongoing support, I have developed an online tool that will allow donors (you!) to create a short profile of yourself to highlight your motivations for giving, along with a pledge to support one or more students for the year.  For $20 per month you can secure weekly tutoring for one student.

Check out the "Why we Give" page and get psyched to donate!

The rumor got out in Otse Village that Setso Project would be screening movies on weekend evenings and now Wame can’t walk around town without kids asking her when the movies are coming.  Based on some window shopping and volunteer tech advice (thank you Hlubi!) we expect to be able to buy all the needed equipment (gas-powered generator, outdoor speakers, DVD player, projector, and cables) with the $2,400 we’ve raised so far.  We are eager to launch any week now, once we sort out a couple logistical issues (including where to store the equipment securely).  Wame and I have decided to plan 2 screenings for opening night, one for families starting at 6pm and one for teens starting at 8pm.  We will announce opening night as soon as we have a date!

We invite you to start sending us your favorite movies (on DVD) now so that we can get them to Botswana by opening night!  Please send DVDs and an explanation of why you’ve chosen this/these particular movies to share:

Setso Project
75 Garnet Park
Madison, CT 06443

We are grateful for the addition of two new characters to our cast: Tebogo Mabote joins our Advisory Board and Peggy Anteunucci joins us as Volunteer Fundraiser:

A native of the little city of Lobatse, Botswana, Tebogo earned a B.Eng in Environmental Engineering at Carlton University and is now a Consultant for CH2M Hill, an international environmental engineering group in Canada.

Peggy has served as Chair of the Outreach Commission at The First Congregational Church of Madison, CT, which has supported Setso Project since our inception. Now our official Fundraiser, Peggy will orchestrate our fundraising and marketing efforts, including presentations on Setso Project's work and special holiday fundraisers. Read an article about Peggy.

Alternative-giving Valentine's Cards—Thank you to all who participated in our Valentine’s Day fundraiser!  With your support, we raised $590.00 from the sales of our greeting cards—a great success! This is in addition to the $500.00 raised from Christmas cards, so we are thrilled with our donors’ generosity.  These funds go directly to support Setso’s projects, detailed in this newsletter and on the web site.      

Continuing our “Cards for A Cause,” we are now offering Passover and Easter greeting cards to send your loved ones.  These are on sale at Two Ems card shop in Madison, CT. Again, the suggested donation is $10 per card, and all proceeds from these cards go to support Setso Project.  Watch for Mother’s and Father’s Day cards to come…And special occasion, birthday, or anniversary cards can be custom designed at any time! 
Cards can be ordered from Peggy by emailing mantenucci@setsoproject.org