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Botswana: Africa Foundation
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The United States considers Botswana an advocate of and a model for stability in Africa and has been a major partner in Botswana's development since its independence. The U.S. Peace Corps returned to Botswana in August 2002 with a focus on HIV/AIDS-related programs after concluding 30 years of more broadly targeted assistance in 1997. Similarly, the USAID phased out a longstanding partnership with Botswana in 1996, after successful programs emphasizing education, training, entrepreneurship, environmental management, and reproductive health. Botswana... continues to benefit along with its neighbors in the region from USAID's Initiative for Southern Africa. The Regional Center for Southern Africa (RCSA), which implements the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Initiative for Southern Africa (ISA), is headquartered in Gaborone as well. The United States International Board of Broadcasters (IBB) operates a major Voice of America (VOA) relay station in Botswana serving most of the African Continent.
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HIV has been a national tragedy for Botswana, a stable democracy which is among Africa's richest nations and was once held up as an example of African potential. Among other effects, life expectancy in Botswana has fallen by at least nine years since 1970, a drop that is all the more dramatic in light of the economic and infrastructure development that has taken place during the past three decades. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has estimated that life expectancy in Botswana would have risen to first-world levels by now if not for AIDS... suggesting that HIV may have taken 30 years off the average Botswanese's lifespan. The costs in reduced productivity, strain on the public health system and orphaned children have also been incalculable.
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[T]housands of miles away in Botswana, the Bush administration's claim provoked frustration and anger among public and private partners that had built Africa's most far-reaching AIDS treatment program, recalled those involved. Although the Bush program had promised millions of dollars of support, no money had yet arrived, they said.
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In the late nineteenth century, hostilities broke out between the Tswana inhabitants of Botswana and Ndebele tribes who were migrating into the territory from the Kalahari Desert. Tensions ... escalated with the Boer settlers from the Transvaal. After appeals by the Batswana leaders Khama III, Bathoen and Sebele for assistance, the British Government on March 31, 1885 put "Bechuanaland" under its protection. The northern territory remained under direct administration as the Bechuanaland Protectorate and is today's Botswana, while the southern territory became part of the Cape Colony and is now part of the northwest province of South Africa; the majority of Setswana-speaking people today live in South Africa.
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The United States considers Botswana an advocate of and a model for stability in Africa and has been a major partner in Botswana's development since its independence. The U.S. Peace Corps closed out its presence in Botswana on December 1997, bringing to an end 30 years of well-regarded assistance in education, business, health, agriculture, and the environment. Similarly, the USAID phased out a longstanding partnership with Botswana in 1996, after successful programs emphasizing education, training, entrepreneurship, environmental management, and reproductive health.
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Bessie Head is a well-known Botswana writer. She fled the apartheid regime in South Africa to live in and write about Botswana. She lived there from 1964 (when it was still the Bechuanaland Protectorate) until her death at the age of 49 in 1986. She lived in Serowe, and her most famous books, When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power are set there.
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