Organizations
Braam Le Roux: A brief history
2009-11-20 19:02:28
BRAAM LEROUX AND SAN SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS: A BRIEF HISTORY
Robert K. Hitchcock
Kalahari Peoples Fund
Braam Le Roux was one of the founders of Kuru, a San support organization, the first of its kind in Botswana. He was also, along with Axel Thoma, one of the founders of WIMSA, the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa.
Kuru Development Trust was founded as a multipurpose development institution and registered officially with the Botswana Government as a charitable organization in 1986 after lengthy discussions with people in western Botswana and other parts of southern Africa. Kuru, now known as the Kuru Family of Organizations (KFO), is a broad-based San support organization that engages in a wide variety of development activities. Its work ranges from doing capacity-building among community-based organizations to assisting local people in income generation and agricultural projects. Starting first in D’Kar in western Botswana, Kuru expanded to other communities in Ghanzi District and in North West District (Ngamiland).
Kuru was the first non-government organization to work directly with San in Botswana besides faith-based institutions. In the 1990s Kuru staff initiated an Early Childhood Care and Education Program (ECCE), part of which was devoted to establishing and running preschools. The Bokamoso Preschool Program, as it is known, does in-service pre-school teacher training. It also assists in the development of curricula and materials for use in the schools. The preschool program works in communities without schools and establishes play groups for children (see W. Le Roux 1999).
The type of approach employed by the Bokamoso teachers and their trainers can be characterized as holistic, covering a variety of skills and building on the knowledge of the teachers and the children with whom they interact. The program emphasizes creative play, telling of stories, arts and crafts work, and exchanging of information about the natural and social environment. Classes are given in mother tongue San languages, including Nharo, the language spoken by many western Botswana San. The parents of the local children are also involved extensively in the preschool program, which has helped to institutionalize the program and has contributed to its sustainability over the long term.
Kuru, like other innovative NGOs, has attempted to build on the strengths of local communities (see Le Roux 1996; Van Tripp and Oussoren 1999). It uses a consultative approach in which lengthy discussions are held with local people. KFO works with the various segments of communities, paying careful attention to dimensions of gender, age, kinship, and social identity. Kuru, along with other NGOs, has been involved in promoting self-help efforts in rural communities. It has also been a leader in promoting health and well-being among San and other people in western Botswana. Kuru also sought to promote development and human rights among all of the peoples of Botswana (for a beautifully illustrated discussion of southern Africa San from their own perspectives, see Le Roux and White 2004).
In August, 1999 I was in the Tsodilo Hills in northwestern Botswana with a group of consultants evaluating Kuru for a funding agency, Hivos. We camped near the Female Hill, not far from the National Museum housing area. It was a very cold night, and the wind picked up. I will always remember waking up and seeing Braam going around and covering various people with blankets to protect them from the cold. He was an incredibly caring and giving individual who devoted his life to helping others. He will be missed greatly.
References
Le Roux, Braam (1996) Community-Owned Development amongst the Marginalized San Communities of the Kalahari, as Adopted by a San Community Development Organization, the Kuru Development Trust. Working Papers in Early Childhood Development 22. The Hague, The Netherlands: Bernard van Leer Foundation.
Le Roux, Braam and Axel Thoma (1995a) Project Proposal for the Establishment of the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa: A Regional Network, Angola, Botswana Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Gaborone, Botswana and Windhoek, Namibia.
Le Roux, Braam and Axel Thoma (1995b) ’If We Don’t Know our Rights We Are Losers’: Reflections upon the Necessity for a Regional Representative Platform of San. Paper submitted to the CCN Round-table Consultation, Windhoek, Namibia.
Le Roux, Willemien (1999) Torn Apart: San Children as Change Agents in a Process of Acculturation. A Report on the Educational Situation of Children in Southern Africa. Ghanzi, Botswana: Kuru Development Trust and Windhoek, Namibia: Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa.
Van Tripp, Ruud and Otto Oussoren, eds. (1999) Indigenous Peoples’ Consultation: Report on an Indigenous Peoples’ Consultation on Empowerment, Culture, and Spirituality in Community Development. D’Kar, Botswana: Kuru Development Trust and the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa.
Le Roux, Willemien and Alison White (2004) Voices of the San: Living in Southern Africa Today. Cape Town: Kwela Books.
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