Donation of Items Provided by the Rotary Clubs of Grimsby Havelok and Skegness
On Thursday, 11 September 2014, President John Cunliffe and his wife Beverley visited Childline together with Rotarians Emily Ruhukwa and Graham Burt. The object was to donate some jerseys, mittens and beanies that had been sent out from the UK by the Rotary Clubs of Grimsby Havelok and Skegness when Past President Chris Suich and Rotarian Bob Suich visited the club last month.
We met with the Country Coordinator of Childline Botswana, Onkemetse Mbazo-Montsheki who gave us an overview of their operation and guided tour of their facility.
In addition to the 24 hour hotline, Childline provides counselling for children and parents and also provides a safe haven for abused and abandoned children. They have accommodation for about 20 children and are presently looking after 19.
We met a handful of boys who were under school going age, one toddler and three babies. The boys were overjoyed to see us and all wanted to be hugged and picked up. They were very excited with the items of apparel plus the biscuits and drinks that were also presented.
Because of the various reasons for these children being accommodated by Childline we were advised that we could not show their faces in any of the photographs and thus we had to come up with alternative poses. It was difficult to get all of the boys to cooperate at the same time and so I have blurred the offending face.