Bridging The Gab, Imparting Web Literacy - Mozilla Tour Botswana

Mozilla exists to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Internet. The success of our mission depends on participation from people like you.The Mozilla Botswana community embarked on a Mozilla Tour Botswana last week by visiting universities and schools in various towns of Botswana such as Francistown, Maun and Kasane, in addition this tour was graced  by a group of passionate Mozilla Volunteers; Segolo Machai, Kealeboga Malejane, Outule Obotseng and Olebile Ditshweu together with their Mozilla Rep Oarabile Mudongo. 

The main theme of this tour was Bridging The Gap, Imparting Web Literacy  and some of the supporting topics we covered were Firefox OS, App Maker, Localization and Firefox Student Ambassadors Program. As the theme of this tour has been stated above the core objectives of the entire trip are stated below:

Objectives/Desirable Outcomes 

• Inspire other Mozillians interested to join Mozilla http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/.

• Sharing ideas and how to contribute to Mozilla projects and building active communities.

• Recruit 100+ volunteers in each town to  get involved in L10n and Web-makers projects as our key projects we are currently involved with.

• Initiate Firefox Student Ambassadors  in each town per University plus a representative to start FSA clubs in schools.

Olebile Ditsweu

Kealeboga Malejane

Oarabile Mudongo

Segolo Machai

Outule Obotseng

The tour started off when we traveled early morning on 2nd February to Francistown but before that he had a breakfast before we could hit the road. Usually the trip from the capital city (Gaborone) to the second city (Francistown) is almost 450km in approximately 5hrs: 00min by bus. As our bus was scheduled at 09:00am we all left the city and arrived at our first destination at around 14:00pm. Upon our arrival in Francistown, we all went to our hotel for check-in to settle up and get prepare for the first event the following morning thereafter we all went for dinner. You honestly couldn't stop admiring  the protruding town from afar and the scenic mountain that makes the city very popular with just friendly people everywhere and the scenic town.

 As the day of arrival was wrapped up with a dinner that night was full of excitement. Talking about Mozilla stuff and sharing each others stories and how we can activate our community was the core discussion at the dinner table, nothing feels sweeter than this. The most favorite part of being part of this community is that you always feel the love of being a Mozillians when attending any of the Mozilla events, hearing from different people, their experiences in this movement, what they do as Mozillians and even what they do as individuals aside from contributing to Mozilla, We got to learn a lot from people during such moments. Day one ended with briefings on what the program was going to be like for the next day and what to expect for the rest of the days at Botho University - Francistown Campus.

DAY 1: Francistown - Botho University

Monday morning marked the 1st day of major event, the day opened with a pre-keynote address by a Mozilla Representative giving insights about the entire objectives of the visit on campus and Mozilla community, benefits and lastly products of Mozilla. There after the making begun, I had the opportunity to listen to other sessions like FSA, Localizing Firefox products offered by accompanying Mozillians. I also took some time to talking about the Reps program with various participants and making friends.What surprised us most was the courtesy displayed by Botho University management and the entire student body in welcoming us into their campus.

•  Creating a standard

In order to teach the web, we realized we need a framework for what we’re teaching. The Webmaker site is also launching with a Web Literacy Standard, a framework that’s underpinning our work going forward. Developed alongside our community of education-minded Mozillians, the Web Literacy Standard is a map of competencies and skills covering everything from basic coding to knowledge about privacy and safety. These are competencies that Mozilla and our community of stakeholders believe are important to pay attention to when getting better at reading, writing and participating on the web.

• Open Badge

The web has usurped the traditional idea of how we acquire an education, and we now have limitless pathways to self-driven knowledge and a seamless connection with other people who can help us learn. Open Badges is a concrete way of capturing and recognizing what we learn in all parts of our lives. We’re announcing the Badge Alliance at today’s Summit, to continue to grow the ecosystem, as the more organizations and employers who participate, the more robust this system will become.

Wrapping up the day at Botho University campus in Francistown, we made lots of interactions with participants, exchanging contacts. Though is wasnt that easy to say good bye to multitudes who participated at this event, we just couldn't let them go without giving them Mozilla Swag to ace up their feelings to be a Mozillians. The event ended up on a high note, everyone happy and zealious to continue the task we left with them.

DAY 2: Maun - Botho University

On a diver note just a day after a well organized event in Francistown, the tour continued to Maun to our second venue were people where ignited and happy to receive the good new about Mozilla visiting their campus. This is a very unique place with just lots of scenic things to see, however the welcoming atmosphere was of no doubt that our event was going to be a fantastic one. Though the bus arrived a bit late evening we disembarked and walked a kilometer to our hotel for a check in as usual. We then set for dinner at Maun Lodge, one of the most popular resorts in the area, where we set and discussed on the agenda of the following day. The meals were just as scrumptious as you could imagine, a very friendly waiter serving us kept a smile on our faces during our meals.


The following morning was a beautiful day, very energetic and optimistic, as planned we wanted to visit two schools (a high school and a university) in this area and unfortunately we were denied entry at the high school as the headmaster did not seem to be in good boats with the mission of our program for students.Rather that did not demoralize us either-way we all went for a visit to Botho University-Maun campus for preparations were the center manager welcomed us vividly in his campus,our event was scheduled to take place in the afternoon and surprisingly students were already waiting patiently for our arrival.Something amazing, there was good turn up as well, vibrant participants payed so much attention to our presentations and asked questions which was a lot more engaging.

As the event ended we had time to interact with people and share  Mozilla mission on a personal level. It wasn't that easy to just say good by to participants as normally there is some sense of sadness whenever people part ways after a long joyful day. We had to fly out the following day to Kasane early morning (09:00am) which meant us getting enough sleep to catch up well on time the following morning.  I must say this was the most amazing part of the journey because we were all flying instead of taking a bus, everyone was just elated; more to say very much happy to experience flying for first flyers.

  









DAY 3: Kasane - Chobe Community Junior School
 Firefox Student Ambassadors are individuals who are passionate about Mozilla and raise awareness about the many benefits of Firefox and other Mozilla products and it is through this tour that we were led to go and evangelize Mozilla mission at Kasane. Our visit to this place was so unbelievable as to what we expected. The kids where just so amazing and vibrant to learn and ask what we got for them. I think we must admit that publicity is a very effective method of getting much recognition. People could not stop admiring our smart Firefox t-shirts as we were all stunning and looking great.




Our event at the last venue was hosted at Chobe Community Junior School were mostly our participants consisted of high school students (grade 9-10).  Our main challenge here was quiet unbearable because we had to change the level of facilitating our lesson in order to cater for this kids. Fortunately something came up, we offered them lessons on user experience on Firefox browser and Internet browsing using Firefox.

Apart from just having an all day making presentations and evangelizing on Friday, Saturday was set aside for an outing and interact with nature and discuss as well on our success and failures measures of the entire tour. Very relaxing and fruitful we were able to draw up the next plans for our community agenda. Learning from each others experiences of the tour was really encouraging to visualize on having a very active and committed community of Mozilla Botswana.
The following morning was set for our departure back to the capital city, everyone was just tired after a long week away home. The very interesting thing was that we were flying only for 2 hrs 00min which was very comforting to learn that our journey back home wont be that long.