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From 6 July 2006, a graphic version of the current edition is available at the Daily News Online web site.

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Mr Barolong Seboni, a writer and University of Botswana lecturer, says the move is intended to get encorage and motivate more young people to unleash their creative talent skills.

Speaking at a one-day writers workshop on Saturday which was mostly attended by secondary schools students, Mr Seboni said the aim of the workshop was to hone the creative writing skills of the participants.

The workshop, which was held under the theme: Performing and Writing Poetry also taught participants how they could infuse their history, culture and language into their poems as a way of preserving them.

In the past. we used to have a community of writers who would interact to share ideas, and the intention now is to revive that by bringing in young writers so that we can have branches in schools, Mr Seboni said.

He noted that they also want to meet on a regular basis to interact and share ideas on creative writing.

Mr Seboni said they plan to publish a journal called Mahube that will serve as an outlet for young writers to express themselves.

He noted that while writers have an important responsibility of imparting knowledge and information to the community, they should exercise caution to avoid misleading readers. In the case of poetry, oral poetry plays an important role in bringing out the truth.

Through poets, we are able to know about the traditions, culture and lifestyle of a certain group of people, hence the need to be more informed, he said.

One of the participants, Leungo Frank, said she learnt a lot from the workshop and that her wish is to see more workshops being held to empower them with writing skills.

I did not know much about poetry but from the workshop I learnt how to present my points as well as how to use words to achieve meaning. Through interaction with professionals like Mr Seboni I am going back home empowered, said Frank, a form four student at St Josephs College.

Another aspiring writer, Batsile Thomas said the workshop helped to strengthen his writing skills.

He said while he ventured into poetry last year, with his first poem entitled HIV/AIDS, he now has the courage to write more poems on different issues.

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