Aligned with local and international environmental policy regarding climate change, Mebala Youth Studios aims to face the future with clean energy supplies and sustainable business practices. Our Youth Centre demonstrates the benefits and beauty of sustainability through green buildings made of reclaimed and upcycled materials.
Green Buildings
Our commitment to sustainability is embedded in our DNA, as shown by our Green Kgotla (below) and Training Rooms (right). These were built with the environment in mind, with the aim of protecting our area from man-made damage.
The Green Kgotla is a meeting space as dictated by Setswana tradition. While mostly used by our staff as a “chill space”, it been used as a dance workshop space by Juilliard School of Performing Arts, a natural area for group sessions by Blue Cross Botswana, and visited by dignitaries, entrepreneurs, and youth using the general space.
Greening Botswana One Tree at a Time
In line with the EU’s policy of Climate Diplomacy, and in answer to the President’s call to #GreenBotswana, we proudly hosted a number of stakeholders for a tree planting ceremony.
Our guests came together to share in their commitment in seeing a greener and more sustainable Botswana. They included Deputy Ambassador to the European Union in Botswana and SADC, Ms Sylvia Bopp-Hamrouni; the Director of the Department of Forestry and Range Resources; Principal Ms Baitshepi Hill; Programs Director from the Department of Youth, Gender, Sports and Culture Mr Kefemtse Phoi; Country Director of Friederich Ebert Stiftung, Mr Thilo Schöne; representatives from the Gaborone West Kgotla; Mebala Youth Studios Board Member, Ms Mimi Modimakwane; Bophirima Ward Counsellor, Mankie Sekete and Mr Guy Williams, a local sustainability expert.
The EU delegation has donated a Baobab tree and citrus fruit trees to us, serving as a prelude to a longer term plan to develop educational gardens for permaculture and community development in the Gaborone West area.
A Greener Future for Mebala Youth Studios
As the world continues to tug and tussle at reasons and ways to ‘go green’, Mebala Youth Studios has opted to take the charge forward. Through collaboration with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Botswana and New Era College, the NGO has managed to move their space into the realm of eco-conscious enterprises across the world.
Perhaps what is most inspirational about this endeavour is that it is being implemented in an area of Botswana’s capital city that has a legacy of being undermined. Hosted at the Lady Olebile Masire Community Centre – colloquially called “Kwa ga Mma Masire” on public transportation and in the area – Mebala Youth Studios has taken it upon themselves to offer young Batswana a way to go beyond their circumstances. Based in skills development and activated empowerment, their youth-centric programming aims to fortify efforts already
mobilised by state entities while also prodding toward innovative interventions to common and arising problems.
Overcast weather conditions
When the opportunity arose to bid for a grant from the German Embassy, Jelena Mitrovic and Maarten Weers, Executive and Operations Directors at the organisation respectively, worked with their team to put their best foot forward. With the goal of having a system that would enable the centre to operate off the Botswana Power Services grid for the most part, their goal was to find a way to have a system with a capacity of 125 percent able to supply power even at times of high demand and in overcast weather conditions.
Opportunities for green jobs
This aspiration was met by willing and eager ears at the German Embassy in Botswana, as well as by New Era College. The college provided engineers through an agreed attachment programme. This on-the-job training for their students aligned with the empowerment modalities employed by the organisation as a “way to inspire future professionals to choose a career in solar”, said Weers, adding that they boosted the bounty “by offering them a course of basic entrepreneurship to inspire them to start their own businesses”.
The deliberate installation of the system at the BOSS (Business One-Stop-Shop) was to “show (aspiring) youth entrepreneurs the working of such installation and the benefits solar has over traditional power and that proves to be more affordable in the long run”.
Remarking on the investment and its value for ensuring that African states don’t get left behind in eco-conscious energy transitions, Her Excellency Mrs. Margit Hellwig-Bötte, the German Ambassador to Botswana, told this publication stated: “In my view, fighting unemployment and going green are not mutually exclusive. Mebala Studios has decided to go green by installing solar panels and trained aspiring electricians in the process. There are huge opportunities for green jobs out there.”
Foreseeable gaps
Aligning with the constant drive at Mebala Youth Studios to “Make TVET Cool”, the investment in the often undermined technical and vocational education and training furthers a means to equip young people to fill foreseeable gaps in the energy industry.
By way of the German Embassy investing BWP 400, 000 in this project through the small scale project fund, this sits as a way of realising “the goals we share with the Government of Botswana, not only in terms of expanding the use of renewable energy but also in terms of TVET”, said Hellwig-Bötte, adding “we believe that hands-on training in the workplace is needed for young people to acquire professional skills, thus exposing them to actual challenges and finding practical solutions as an important key.”
With attendance by Councillor Mankie Sekete of Bophirima Ward (in Gaborone), and Phillips Chivaphi, Chair of the Solar Industry Association, it is expected that this investment in the technology and the community will continue to generate success. As Mebala Youth Studios chooses to harvest one of Botswana’s most renewable natural resources, they hope that it is only a matter of time until their peers and those in corporate sector and the state follow suit. Going green is their way of investing in the present and a vibrant future.
~ Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile (as seen in the Business Weekly Review, July 21 – 28 2023 Edition)