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The Somarela Fund: Protecting Children at Risk in Botswana. The mission of the Somarela Fund is to advance humanitarian work in southern Africa and cultivate global citizenship among youth of diverse backgrounds from the United States and southern Africa through cultural exchange and service-learning trips. Through community service and cooperative experiences we hope to take down barriers between advantaged and disadvantaged youth. We will discover the strengths of those different than each other and offer our services as members of a global community. We see a world where youth of all kinds inspire one another through their diverse strengths. Where they can help each other overcome their own fears and weakedness and recognize themselves how important a role they can play in the lives of others. We see a world of opportunity for Batswana AIDS orphans who otherwise might face a life of despair and/or death. We will cultivate relationships with local social service organizations like Bana Ba Letsatsi through direct funding and by providing community service trips to better these organizations and their surrounding communities. Somarela means  istewardship.

Bana Ba Letsatsi (Sunshine Children), the largest program, was started in 2003 in response to the rapidly growing number of victims of AIDS/HIV and the problems that have evolved as a result of the epidemic. Destitute children, without parents or shelter, are either farmed out to distant relations who don't want them or they are left to roam the streets on their own. In Maun gangs of homeless teens and preteens wander through shopping areas and malls begging and digging through the garbage. Substance abuse is not uncommon. Bana Ba Letsatsi works directly with these disenfranchised children who have left home for life on the streets. The mission is to keep these "social orphans" away from negative influences such as drugs (mostly glue sniffing), begging and petty crime. The ultimate goals are to empower these children to return to mainstream schools, help them establish a life away from the parking lots of Maun, and support them in becoming productive members of society. Bana Ba Letsatsi offers non-formal schooling, counseling services, two meals a day, sex education, job training and financial educational assistance. 

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