The End of Our Trip

Written by: Gabriella Reiss

March 27 2024

Welcome to the final post for the 2024 ASB Botswana Service Trip,

As we return to Barcelona and reflect on everything that has happened over the course of this trip, there is a lot to think about.

Not many people get the opportunity to travel to Botswana for 10 day service trip. Not many people are able to help people face-to-face through service learning. Not many people get the opportunity to teach refugees about soccer, art, lego robotics, or entrepreneurship. Not many teenagers are trusted to present to the Embassy of the United States and the Ministry of Justice of Botswana. Not many people get to hear a refugee’s story directly from them. Yet, through the American School of Barcelona, 15 high schoolers have been enabled to do all of this.

Every single person on this trip learned so much: about the country of Botswana, about the people there, and especially about refugees. In the beginning, many of us didn’t have a strong understanding of the actual situation of refugees–some things we thought would be much worse, others we thought would be much better.

Being in Dukwi Refugee Camp really opened our eyes. We were able to see that there was a community of people there, who spent time together and had fun and had a life. Many of the horror stories that we have been taught don’t talk about this side of refugees–they only talk about the difficulties. Of course, we learned about those as well, but it is significantly more impactful when you hear a person’s story from that person.

While it’s important for us to recognize that we can’t fix everything on a ten-day trip with 15 students, we have to remember that what we did made an impact. We were able to give people at Dukwi, kids and adults alike, two days of fun with us, as well as resources that are going to make a big impact in the camp.

By resources, it’s not just supplies that we donated, but also the programs that we are helping to implement and continue in the camp in the future. For example, the lego robotics is going to be educational and fun for the children of Dukwi even while we are gone. The entrepreneurship course that we introduced to a second group is still going to be taught and diplomas will be received while we are not actively there. This is going to open a lot of doors for people in Dukwi, and help them to succeed and make improvements in their lives. Additionally, the girls soccer team that we helped to introduce is going to provide something else exciting and active and unique for the women and girls in Dukwi. In the coming weeks Mr. Javi and Ms. Marta will be meeting with the Athletic department in Dukwi to continue work on this team.

Much of this would not be possible, or at least nearly as effective without a generous donation from the Kilpper Familiy. Marlow (PK4) and Aurelia (Elementary) Klipper’s family donated the two WiFi routers which we helped to install in Dukwi Refugee Camp. Enabling the camp to have access to the internet will help to make significant improvements, especially when it comes to the programs that we have introduced. The entrepreneurship program has an online component which will now be much easier to use, and communication with people in the camp will improve dramatically. Thank you to the Klipper Family!

All in all, this trip was an incredible opportunity. Each and every one of us is so incredibly thankful to have been able to go to Botswana and do what we did. This was a life-changing experience, and none of us will ever forget it.

That’s all for this year, but don’t worry: ASB will be going back to Botswana in 2025!