In partnership with the Botswana government the European Union recently awarded grants totalling 6.8 million Pula (£635 000) to 14 different non-profit organisations as part of a capacity-building programme for 2011. Mothers for All was one of the beneficiaries and we now, therefore, have funding to roll out workshops in food gardening and product diversification for our mothers during the forthcoming year.

Jenny Dunlop, our national co-ordinator, was at the ceremony held in Gaborone to celebrate the awards and is pictured here (right of centre) holding the symbolic cheque with the other recipients and the outgoing head of the EU delegation to Botswana and SADC, Ambassador Paul Malin.

Ambassador Malin gave an address emphasising the fact that good collaboration between civil society and government could unlock additional benefits and thus improve the effectiveness of both. He further added that partnerships between the government and non-profit organisations were necessary to address the dependency that came from simply waiting for the government to help. "We know that government cannot do everything," he said. Ambassador Malin congratulated the recipients for convincing the assessors that their projects deserved the grants. Mothers for All would like to thank the EU and the government for entrusting us to increase the capacity of our mothers and bring about further positive change within their own households and the wider community.