Beyond the Boroughs Goes to Botswana!

In August of 2011, Beyond the Boroughs scholars Mariadis Akinci from the University of Central Florida, Amy Pruim from St. John’s University and Cathy Williams from Syracuse University along with Beyond the Boroughs Founder Tutan Reyes and Administrator Ray Reyes participated in a service learning trip to Botswana with The Somarela Fund.

Each year The Somarela Fund takes a group of students to Botswana to bolster and sustain humanitarian aid and social services. This summer’s trip lasted for two and a half weeks and the Beyond the Boroughs scholars were provided with full scholarships from The Somarela Fund to attend the trip. They joined students from Riverdale Country Day School in various projects that helped the community in Maun, Botswana. Students built a bathroom for a woman who is HIV positive. Students also planted seeds for over one hundred trees as a part of a highway beautification project, put mud on a hut made of sticks in order to keep the family of eight warm who lives in the hut and completed various projects at the Bana Ba Letsatsi community center for at risk youth. In addition to the service portion of the trip, participants were also able to go on two safaris in Moremi and Chobe National Park.

The trip helped the students find differences and commonalities amongst the Botswana people and culture. Each student is required to complete a project upon returning in order to bring back what they learned to their various communities.

Here are some highlights from the trip and we are extremely thankful to The Somarela Fund for making this trip possible for our scholars.