Botswana

Botswana Girl Guide Law

1. A Guide is loyal and can be trusted.
   
2. A Guide is helpful.
   
3. A Guide is polite and considerate.
   
4. A Guide is friendly and a sister to every other Guide.
   
5. A Guide is kind to animals and respects all living things.
   
6. A Guide is obedient.
   
7. A Guide has courage and is cheerful in all difficulties.
   
8. A Guide makes good use of her time.
   
9. A Guide takes care of her own possessions and those of other people.
   
10. A Guide is self-controlled in all she thinks, says and does.
    

Botswana Sunbeam Law

1. A Sunbeam is truthful, obedient and cheerful,
2. A Sunbeam thinks of others before herself.

Development of the Movement

Guiding in Botswana (then called Bechuanaland Protectorate) began in 1924 after a young girl, returning home to Kanye from boarding school in England, contacted other girls and interested them in the Movement. The Poppy patrol, with six members, was formed and by the end of the year a Brownie six had also started.

In 1928 a company of Girl Wayfarers, an organization for African girls working on similar lines to Guiding, was started by the wife of a missionary living in Kanye. Numbers grew steadily and interest in the Movement spread throughout the country. In 1936 the Girl Wayfarers, by affiliation with WAGGGS, became Wayfarer Guides, and by 1945 there was one Movement for all the girls in Botswana whose members were known as Girl Guides and Sunbeams. The Guide Association (UK), the Girl Guides Association of South Africa and members of the Movement in Belgium gave valuable training assistance to the developing Movement in Botswana.

In 1966 the country became independent and the Guide Association (UK) approved a deed of transfer making the Botswana Girl Guides Association self-governing in all areas of work.