Dear Jack,

This is an extraordinary moment of hope for the Indigenous peoples of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (sometimes known as “Bushmen”). Last November Duma Boko, the lawyer who twenty years ago defended their rights in a case supported by Survival, became the country’s new President.

As a lawyer, Advocate Boko helped the Reserve’s Indigenous people win the right to return to their ancestral land, and successfully fought for their access to water. Now he has the chance to provide them with land and water security for generations to come.

But there is no time to waste. Previous governments made life in the Central Kalahari extremely difficult, in an effort to drive the people from their lands. The situation is close to unlivable – they can’t afford to wait any longer for change.

There’s a severe shortage of water. The people rely on sporadic deliveries from trucks towing water tanks through the desert, but the trucks often break down, and never carry enough water. The water is pumped from a borehole on their land, but they are blocked from accessing it themselves. One woman, Sesodo Moeti, recently told us, “We don’t know how people will survive. The water truck broke down so some people have no water at all.”

With your support, Survival purchased equipment to repair a broken borehole in the central community of Mothomelo. After hours of determined effort by Mothomelo’s residents, water began to gush from the ground once more. The water is too salty for human consumption, but the restored borehole will now provide important relief for the animals, easing the strain on the community’s limited supply of drinking water.

The lack of water is the main obstacle to more of the Reserve’s Indigenous people leaving the appalling resettlement camps where they now live and returning to the Central Kalahari. With your support, we can continue improving their access to water – funding new boreholes and lobbying the authorities for permanent change.

Survival supporters have stood alongside the Central Kalahari’s Indigenous people for decades, and won some extraordinary victories. During this crucial window of opportunity, we must press forward and create real change to secure their land and livelihoods for good. As our great friend, Roy Sesana, says, “Saa! Saa! Saa!” (“Keep going! Keep going! Keep going!”)

Best wishes,

Louisa Leslie
Senior Campaigner