Botswana adopted the UN Convention on a Rights of Children and then passed its own legislation called the Child Act in 2009. Imagine, Children have "modern" rights legally since 2009 in Botswana. Most citizens of Botswana still don't know what's in the Child Act, hence, the District Child Welfare Committee, of which I'm the Vice-Chair of, will be holding Child Welfare Day on February 16.
As part of the Committee, I've created a flyer, drafted directly from the Child's Act that can be distributed to the public. With globalization, and Botswana trying to be a forward thinking country, the Child Act was written in English. Also keep in mind, that the Act was passed in 2009, yet copies of it didn't start circulating until late last year, 2011 to Police, Social Welfare Officers etc. The flyer is meant to be easy to understand, hence, while working with various people in my office and the Social and Community Development Office with Local Government here, we were able to translate the flyer into Setswana.
We will be distributing the flyer to the public at Child Welfare Day. Since we had issues getting funding for the printing, we opted for a simpler format (not designed by a graphic designer) and we will likely be using the resources of the Local Government Office, which literally means, printing dozens and dozens of flyers on an inkjet printer.
Of course, this does not go without challenges. Literacy Rates in Maun are about 85%, further up in the delta, only 60%. However, hopefully this will be a breakthrough, that can be replicated across the Nation and form a benchmark for other districts.
Just the drafts, English & Setswana
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