Stories from the Margins: Hope Through Play

Just 13% of US foundation grants go to organisations operating in the country served by the grant and only a fraction of that to Botswana (The State Of Global Giving By U.S Foundations: 2022 Edition). When we reached our HIV/AIDS targets of 95-95-95 for people aware of their status, receiving treatment and virally suppressed, funders and the global community turned their eyes away from Botswana. In addition to this, our low population limits the numerical scale for funders in comparison to other African countries. This has left large parts of our population, in one of the most unequal countries in the world, looking at only one side of the double edged sword that is our upper-middle income classification. This article serves to highlight the opportunity in Botswana and not detract from existing needs on the continent.?

In Botswana, 76% of children have no access to any early learning opportunities and educational facilities are unevenly distributed, with urban areas generally better served than rural regions (Pre Primary Education Stats Brief - Statistics Botswana 2022). This problem is exacerbated by the fact that 84% of children in Botswana are born to single-mother households, with more than half living below the poverty line (Vital Statistics Report - Statistics Botswana).

Every day, mothers are forced to make a choice between earning a living and providing nurturing care for their children.?

Research has shown that children living in poverty and particularly with caregivers that experience poor mental-health are up to four times more likely to experience adolescent socioemotional behavioural problems and cognitive development issues. With limited access to early learning opportunities and few income generating opportunities for caregivers, children in Botswana, more often than not, are subject to a hard future.?

Several challenges inhibit the progress of early childhood education in Botswana. Insufficient funding limits the development and sustainability of comprehensive programs, and the scarcity of educational materials, trained professionals, and adequate facilities further affects the quality of education, especially in rural areas. This being said, there is significant opportunity to achieve widespread access to early learning. The government is already taking steps towards improving access and quality by introducing a pre-primary class in public schools and engaging NGOs to discuss public-private partnerships. The relative ease of scaling up similar efforts, given sufficient support and collaboration, has been proven by Youth Impacts success at the primary and secondary levels.

At Learn to Play, we make play-based early childhood education accessible across Africa through playgroups, the Parent Playbox and our Mindful Way. We have already taken strides in creating access by collaborating with local governments and engaging with leaders in 13 communities to make low-cost quality early learning accessible to children, caregivers and educators. We support 600 children every day, have uplifted 50 women above the poverty line by running community playgroups and ensured 93% of children are school ready when they go to primary. By establishing community based play-groups and uplifting existing early learning initiatives with training and curriculum support, we address access and quality simultaneously.?

Despite Botswana's achievements, many of our children are still left behind, facing challenges that no child should have to endure. But we like to see things through a lens of possibility and by sharing our experiences we aim to shed light on the immense opportunity to create impact in Botswana through ECD investment. Funders like the Dovetail Impact Foundation, Masana Wa Afrika and Allan and Gill Gray Philanthropies chose to see that possibility and thousands of caregivers and children are better off for it. This knowledge is a call to action, a reminder that a country’s fact sheet is never the whole story. Botswana is often overlooked for investment and yet the opportunity to replicate the success story of HIV/AIDS remains ripe for the early years.

To encourage the global community to rethink how we determine “need”, highlight our challenges and? our successes we are starting a series called “Stories from the Margins.” This series will share the realities communities face and our personal experiences, aiming to raise awareness, inspire action, and invite more people to join us in making a difference.