About The Fund

If you have questions or for further information,
please contact the Somarela Fund today:
somarelafund@gmail.com

• Annually bring together 20 United States youth of diverse socio-economic backgrounds for a service-learning trip to southern Africa that includes a cultural education component
• Fund annual operating expenses for orphanage in Maun, Botswana
• Provide direct financial support to southern African social service organizations
• Partner with at-risk-youth service organizations and independent private schools to support global citizenship opportunities for the youth they serve
• BBL helps AIDS orphans in Botswana by providing daily meals, job training, health services, counseling, sex education, academic education, housing where necessary. Youth aged 0-20.

Bana Ba Letsasi

Bana Ba Letsatsi (Sunshine Children) is a program 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.