Education Centre for Adolescent Women in Botswana

In Botswana the Young Women’s Christian Association has provided hope to many young women who become pregnant by helping them continue with their education through the YWCA Education Centre for Adolescent Women (ECAW). Article 14 of the SADC Gender Protocol calls upon State Parties, to enact laws that promote equal access to, and retention in primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational and non-formal education in accordance with the Protocol on Education and Training and the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

YWCA of Botswana is a Non-Governmental Organisation that empowers women and youth on human development. ECAW focuses on imparting life skills, counselling of teen mothers, baby care and providing opportunities for young women to continue with their Junior Secondary School.

The project targets Adolescent women who get pregnant while still at school. Actions include:

• Imparting life skills to adolescent women.
• Counselling of teen mothers.
• Care of the teen mothers’ babies
• Providing opportunities to young to continue with their Junior Secondary School.
• Adolescent mothers complete at least Junior Secondary School and are empowered with life skills. Young women are kept in school and empowered to take charge of their life by being kept in school. This is related in the first hand account of a beneficiary provided below.

Challenges include insufficient funding. However, YWCA continues to seek resources to continue with get the initiative up and running as the need is still there. For the programme to be sustainable government needs to offer support or take complete control of the programme as well as provide all financial, human and other resources required to make this a success.