BABUSI DREAMS BIG

Gaborone Central’s Community Trust to uplift livelihoods

The Babusi Community Development Trust is planning to build a community-owned shop - Babusi African Restaurant, with the goal of creating employment for residents of Babusi ward in the Gaborone Central Constituency.

The Chairperson of the Community Development Committee, Onkabetse Matsetse told The Midweek Sun that they have since prepared a business proposal to this effect and will be submitting it to potential funders. “We also have a plan to build a district museum in Babusi as a source of historical literature, tourism attraction to Gaborone, as well as for research endeavours and income for the community,” Matsetse said. The Trust is expected to improve the lives of residents by delivering sustainable socio-economic and environmental developments in the ward. Through the Babusi Community Development Outlook Survey (BCDO) that informed the establishment of the Trust, residents cited lack of collaboration among obstacles affecting progress in their community. Others indicated that illegal drug crisis in the area lead youth into petty crimes. “There are fewer job choices and more dependency on government programmes, and in addition, lack of real wage earning job opportunities, lack of quality childcare and lack of small business programmes hinder progress,” a resident said. The resident added that lack of generational wealth – including home ownership and stability that comes from home is another obstacle. Funding for repair assistance, or to build new inventory of affordable housing options, or the capacity to grow internally to be better prepared to provide assistance to the growing community is the biggest obstacle that residents face. They do not have sufficient funding. Matsetse said the review of the findings of the survey included residents, ward development committee, business sector, government agencies, area councillor, local authority officers and community based organisations.

Matsetse explained that the survey to solicit the views of Babusi community on the need to set up a community trust was conducted in May and June of this year. The selffunded community survey served two principal purposes: it measured community perceptions of community development activities, to find out what people of Babusi see as their problems, how they see solutions and what their attitudes are to the idea of setting up a community trust, and to spread the word about the idea to establish a community trust, as well as to create development partnership with the corporate sector. The survey also included the types of development residents would like to see, including; the physical environment including, housing, schools, parks and other recreational facilities, community life, employment status and income, small businesses, school governing bodies, police life and community policing, as well as crime, violence, gangs, drugs and childcare. “I must say we have since registered the Babusi Community Development Trust, whose membership will be open to the whole community. We have started the process of putting in place necessary instruments for good governance and management of the trust. We have since developed a proposal for benchmarking,” he said. According to Matsetse, the development community will embark on a benchmarking exercise with existing community trusts in Okavango, Serowe, Mochudi, and Mankgodi as one of the key building blocks for effective and more successful running of a community Trust. Matsetse added that through the Babusi Community Development Trust, they want local residents to be more involved in the design of their area. “Instead of thinking about who could solve arising problems in their community, we seek to galvanise the local residents into action and to deliver the much-needed developments in their community. We want to build a thriving Babusi ward”.