A Partnership Made in the Sky

Two years have passed since the U.S. Embassy and Air Botswana formed its partnership, which helped doctors and medical specialists reach rural areas with hard-to-reach patients in need of care. Although this union is now coming to an end, it will not be forgotten by the more than 2,000 patients who have benefitted from the “Doctors with Wings” program.  On April 17, 2013, the United States Embassy and Air Botswana launched this partnership which enabled the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) implementing partners, the University of Pennsylvania and Botswana Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre, to provide medical outreach services to patients in government health facilities located in Francistown, Kasane and Maun, as part of PEPFAR’s broader HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care support to the nation. 

Air Botswana, in recognition of the fact that the journey to a healthier nation is a shared responsibility, embraced the opportunity to partner with PEPFAR and provided over 80 round-trip tickets for medical personnel travelling from Gaborone to Maun, Francistown and Kasane during the two year partnership. As a result of the partnership, more than 2,000 patients received direct medical care, and clinical staff benefitted from mentoring provided by the visiting physician specialists.  The Marketing Manager of Air Botswana, Thapelo Moribame indicated that giving back to the community is very important for the airline. She said, “When it comes to building a brighter and better future for Botswana all stakeholders have to be united. I would like to thank the United States Embassy for being a strong partner alongside the airline.”

The end of the Air Botswana and PEPFAR partnership marks a transition in PEPFAR’s programmatic and geographic support of the HIV and AIDS response in Botswana. PEPFAR will now focus efforts on districts where the disease burden is the greatest to more efficiently and effectively reduce HIV transmission and incidence.  With this shift, PEPFAR implementing partners will no longer be providing medical outreach services in Kasane and Maun, which are among the Air Botswana local flight destinations. Instead, PEPFAR will focus on other higher-needs areas outside of the Air Botswana domestic network.  However, Air Botswana remains committed to its corporate social investment and will continue to develop partnerships that complement its goals, vision and strategic direction with a corporate social responsibility project that will be launched soon.