Donations for the Reading Room

The reading room project is officially on Peace Corps’ website! This means that I can start fundraising all over the world!

My community has been working for the last six months to create a reading room and information center for the village so that everyone can have access to books and computers. There is no library in my community, and outside of school, most people do not have opportunities to use books or computers. We want to create a public space for all that will help foster a culture of reading and provide tools for lifelong learning.

The community has contributed $7,576.47 towards the project through the cost of the donated building and transportation costs to move materials. We also have lots of volunteers who will be helping with labor, painting, building, and cleaning. But now we are looking to fundraise $4,811.12 to cover the costs of connecting the electricity, putting in a new ceiling, building a veranda, bookshelves, and buying computers and printers. We will be receiving a shipment of books from Books for Botswana in June and I am looking to collect more books whenever possible.

Please take a minute to read about the project on the website! We are so excited about this project and are looking for all the help we can get! And if you feel the urge to share this link with as many friends as possible, we would be eternally grateful. I will be posting regular updates about the project on my blog as we go along and plan to post interviews with community members about what a reading room means to them.

If you would like to support our project and donate, please click on the link here:

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/donate/project/bobirwa-region-community-reading-room/

(Donations are U.S. tax deductible)

The ladies of the Reading Room Committee at a school event

Grant proposal: APPROVED!

Wonderful news everyone! Our grant proposal has been approved! As soon as all of the signed paperwork is processed, I will finally have a link to send to people with a page on the Peace Corps website that processes donations. I feel extremely blessed in that everyone from back home (or abroad) I have told about the project has been completely supportive and ready to help, it really means the world to me. We have a lot of money to raise and a lot of work to do and I can't wait to get started. The picture below is the two-room building that the Village Development Committee donated for the project. We need to put a new fence around the property, connect the electricity, put in a ceiling, re-paint, and build shelves. The rooms are also rather small, so we decided to build a shade outside for people to comfortably read outside (I think that will be especially wise during the very hot summers). I am so proud of the progress out Reading Room Committee has made. Stay tuned for the link!

The future reading room!

Malaria Team and Mini-Bootcamp

I am a part of Peace Corps Botswana’s malaria committee. Last June, I was lucky enough to be sent to Senegal for a two-week, intensive training by Stomp Out Malaria on pretty much everything there is to know on the subject. It was amazing, challenging, enlightening, and a tad overwhelming. There were representatives from 11 other Peace Corps Africa countries. It was amazing getting to hear about their experiences and how different service is in every country. Every day, we had experts in the field skype in to tell us about their research or teach us about the basics of malaria transmission.

Bootcamp has been one of the highlights of my service so far. Being in a room with so many passionate and enthusiastic people created this kind of electricity, that just made you want to rush home and get started on projects.

A glimpse of Dakar

If I had to choose one word to describe Senegal it would definitely be: colors 

Our Bootcamp cohort

However, due to budget constraints, only a few people from each cohort get selected to go to Senegal and attend the training. Ever since then, we have wanted to share what we learned with other volunteers and create a space for more malaria initiatives in Peace Corps Botswana.

I’m proud to say that in early February we were given that opportunity! The next batch of volunteers (the ones who started this August) had their In-Service Training (IST) a few weeks ago and we were given three days during that time to provide an optional mini-bootcamp on malaria. We took everything we learned in Senegal and our experiences in Botswana in the last year and created a training program. We had sessions on everything from malaria 101 basics to the latest in research and technology to best practices from different malaria endemic countries. 

Holly teaching everyone how to use Openstreetmap

Fifteen of the new volunteers signed up and we had three days of discussions, questions, and practical exercises. Holly, one of my malaria teammates, taught everyone how to repair and decorate broken bed nets, how to teach kids about malaria using soccer, and how to use openstreetmap for malaria projects. Maureen, my other fearless teammate who lives way up north, taught everyone about the basics in malaria transmission and the latest statistics and malaria trends in Botswana. Finally, I presented on the global malaria situation and the amazing international progress over the last decade in reducing malaria. I also taught a session on doer/non-doer analysis surveys and how useful they can be when working on a project.

Learning to play bed-net ball

I love the work I get to do within my community, but working with other volunteers and having the chance to share what we know with the ‘next generation’ of Peace Corps Botswana volunteers was incredibly fulfilling. I really hope that this training will help volunteers collaborate regionally and support our Batswana counterparts in their efforts to eliminate malaria!

Two volunteers with their completion certificates!

For those of you interested in learning more about our malaria work in Botswana, here is a link to an article Maureen and I wrote on the subject after we presented at Botswana's Annual Malaria Conference:

http://passport.peacecorps.gov/2015/10/15/using-open-data-to-fight-malaria-botswanas-national-malaria-conference-2015/