Kuru festival is a weekend festival of classical dances and it was held under the full moons during the nights of August 19th and 20th at the Dqae Qare San Lodge, in Gantsi. The festival attracted local dance groups from the San/Basarwa settlements in the Gantsi, Kgalagadi and Okavango, as well as the San groups from Namibia and South Africa. Although the festival was founded to celebrate and preserve San culture, various groups from across the country featuring varied dance styles were also invited. Among other dance styles, Polka dance style from the Kgalagadi area proved very popular. Clad in colourful attire and dancing to equally melodious keyboard tunes, the dancers gracefully floated through the air. CCB hosted a stall at the festival on Saturday 20th to disseminate information. Our team worked wonders, ushering visiting tourists from various countries as well as members of the general public. Visitors to our stall got the opportunity to learn first-hand information about CCB’s role and activities, In addition, school children and teachers also had a chance of getting copies of our informational material, such as pamphlets and DVD’s. Overall, the stall generated much interest in the organisation and its conservation efforts.

​Botswana Council of Non Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) as the mother body of Non Governmental Organisations in Botswana held a meeting for board members and other members on the 18th August 2016 at Fairgrounds in Gaborone. The meeting was to share thoughts on the presentation, adoption and finalisation of BOCONGO's 2016 - 2019 Moving Forward strategy.  The new strategy will adopt a more driven network by members to deliver change in Botswana through a new set of global objectives and framework for collaboration and active engagement from all members. A huge amount of progress was made and more ideas were thrown to the table for further discussions and inclusion on the strategy. At CCB, we were excited to be part of this initiative and we will join hands with all in moving the civil society positively forward.

Our recent bush camp was a great success. Our Education team hosted Ghanzi Primary School’s Environmental Education club together with their teachers and the Chairperson of Parent s Teachers Association (PTA) from the 4th to the 7th of August 20016 at CCB’s Tiisano Education Centre.  The activity line-up for the students during camp included; lessons by our very own talented and active Ms. Keneilwe Mathaba, CCB’s Education Officer, on environmental conservation with a focus of cheetahs and other carnivores; by Ms. Ontiretse from Department of Wildlife and National Parks-Ghanzi on Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM); a bird talk by Ms. Kgomotso Mothibi from Raptures Botswana; a visit to Thakadu’s vulture restaurant and fun outdoor games such as a treasure hunt, swimming and volleyball. Wrapping up the weekend was a a theatre show on livestock management practices and human wildlife conflict led by the students themselves. Students rated this their favourite highlight of the weekend, remarking how much they enjoyed participating and showing off their acting talent in an educational manner. CCB would like to thank Ghanzi Primary School staff and students for such a splendid weekend and everyone at the Ghanzi Regional Education Office. We look forward to working with you into the future.