Suicide Hotlines and Crisis Lines in Botswana

A helpline is a place to talk to someone when you are struggling, before or instead of a crisis. The lines on this page are answered by counsellors, trained volunteers or former social workers, depending on the service. If you are not in Botswana, the worldwide list is organised by country.

Botswana has no helpline whose stated purpose is suicide. The one service verified as national, free and answered at any hour is a youth line, run by the Botswana Family Welfare Association, and that is why it leads this page. The general counselling service below it publishes no hours anywhere, so late at night, start with the youth line or with the emergency numbers.

What you share is kept private in almost all cases; if a counsellor believes a life is in immediate danger, they may arrange urgent help. What each service costs is set out beside it below. Several of these lines are free to call, and where an organisation publishes no call cost we say so rather than guess.

TherapyRoute is a directory. We do not answer calls or messages ourselves, so please use the numbers below rather than contacting us if you need someone now.

CRISIS LINES, SUICIDE HOTLINES, AND HELPLINES IN BOTSWANA

Each number below was checked in September 2026 at the operating organisation's own website, at an official Botswana government page, or at LifeLine International's own member page for Botswana.

Notice an error or a missing service? Please tell us so we can correct it.

Emergency numbers, 999 and 997

BOFWA 24 Hour Youth Helpline, 16658, toll-free

Lifeline/FTMTB, general counselling

Childline Botswana, 116, for children

BGBVC, 14655, on gender-based violence

Women Against Rape, Maun and the Northwest District

While you are waiting to be answered

If you are worried about someone else

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Emergency numbers, 999 and 997

Botswana runs two emergency numbers, and neither appeared anywhere on the previous version of this page.

999, the Botswana Police Service. The force prints it across the top of its own homepage as "Emergency Hotline: 999" and, in the same line, "Report GBV Emergency: 999". The Government of Botswana lists calling 999 as the first of three ways to report an incident, ahead of going to a police station, and publishes the force's own response standard of 16 minutes in urban areas and 60 minutes elsewhere.

Tel: 999

Cost: not published on either Botswana government page. We do not state one.

997, the ambulance and emergency medical service. The government's own instruction is to dial 997 and give the location of the patient, what happened, how many people are hurt, and a number to call back on. The Ministry of Health puts it the same way on its own site.

Tel: 997

Hours: "24 hours, Monday to Sunday including public holidays", in the government's own words.

Cost: not published on either Botswana government page. We do not state one.

Where it reaches: the government's own eligibility line names nine towns, and it is worth reading before you rely on it. Gaborone, Mochudi, Lobatse, Mahalapye, Palapye, Phikwe, Francistown, Maun and Kasane. Elsewhere in the country, 999 and the nearest hospital are the surer route. The government's own figure for how long an ambulance takes is a minimum of ten minutes.

BOFWA 24 Hour Youth Helpline, 16658, toll-free

This is a helpline for young people, run by the Botswana Family Welfare Association, whose wider work is sexual and reproductive health. It is on this page, and at the top of it, because it is the only line in Botswana verified as reaching the whole country, costing nothing to call, and answering at any hour.

In the organisation's own words, the line was "designed to address the pressing need for accessible, confidential, and non-judgmental support for young people and vulnerable individuals across Botswana". Its own service delivery manager, quoted in the government's Daily News, says the officers who answer it have previously worked as social workers and are trained in "integrated sexual and reproductive health, hands on practice in handling calls, as well as managing emergencies and mental health issues".

The same article records her appeal to young people to use the line: "Their health is worth more than silence. Pick up the phone, we are here to listen, to advice and to support."

Tel: 16658

Hours: "24 Hour Youth Helpline", in the organisation's own words, printed in its site header on every page.

Cost: toll-free, and, in the government's article quoting BOFWA, "free and accessible from any network".

Languages: not published.

Lifeline/FTMTB, general counselling

LifeLine/Fair Trading Music Therapy of Botswana is the country's LifeLine International member, based in Gaborone. It is the only general adult counselling service on this page. In its own words: "Our goal is to help you grow from your struggles, heal from your pain, and move forward to where you want to be in your life." It names depression and anxiety, trauma, conflict, fear and hopelessness, children's assessments and community support among the things it counsels on, and it says it works with people of all ages.

Two things about this entry are worth saying plainly. Its own website no longer exists, so the numbers below are the ones its international federation publishes for it, and Botswana is listed as a current member there. And the organisation publishes no hours at all, so nobody can tell you when these numbers are answered. In the middle of the night, the toll-free youth line above and the emergency numbers are the ones verified to answer.

Tel: 7552 7590, published internationally as +267 7552 7590

Tel: 7380 7492, published internationally as +267 7380 7492

Email: ftmtbinfor@gmail.com

Hours: not published at any source we could read.

Cost: not published. These are mobile numbers, so a call is charged at your normal rate.

Languages: not published.

Childline Botswana, 116, for children

Childline Botswana is the country's child helpline, in its thirtieth year of service as at May 2025. Its Executive Secretary, Mr Olebile Machete, described the service in the government's Daily News that month, at the handover of a Japanese government grant for a new call centre. The upgrade, he said, "will allow us to handle over 3000 calls per month" and let the service "provide telephonic counselling and refer callers to critical services more efficiently". Before it, the system took one call at a time.

Tel: 116

Hours: as at May 2025, in the words of the organisation's own Executive Secretary, the toll-free 116 line "currently operated until 11.00pm". That is the newest statement of hours that exists at a source we accept, and it is sixteen months old. The same interview records the intention to move to a service answering at any hour once the new call centre is running, which may since have happened.

Cost: toll-free, in the same words.

Languages: not published at any source we accept.

Other channels: the organisation says it has extended its reach to Facebook and WhatsApp. Its own two websites are not working at the moment, so we cannot point you at its published handles.

BGBVC, 14655, on gender-based violence

The Botswana Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Support Centre began in 1998 as the Kagisano Society Women's Shelter Project, the first shelter for abused women and their children in Botswana. Its published services are psychosocial support including teletherapy, emergency and temporary shelter, post-GBV clinical care, legal support for survivors, and community education.

Its free tele-counselling line exists for people who cannot reach its three offices, which are in Gaborone, Francistown and Ghanzi. Its chief executive, Lorato Ruth Moalusi, puts it this way: the centre is "committed to continuing to serve the nation by leveraging on the use of technology to provide tele-therapy to those requiring counselling services and not able to reach our three offices".

Tel: 14655, the free tele-counselling line

Tel: 74 265 081, the line the centre labels Emergency, published as +267 74 265 081

Hours: "Mon - Fri: 0800hrs - 1700hrs", in the organisation's own footer. It publishes one set of hours for the organisation and does not say whether the emergency number is answered outside them.

Cost: the tele-counselling line is free, in the organisation's own word. No cost is published for the emergency number.

Languages: not published.

Where it reaches: reported rather than resolved. The centre's own chief executive speaks of serving the nation, its offices are three, and UNHCR Botswana lists its coverage as Gaborone, Palapye, Northeast/Tutume and Chobe Kweneng East. Those are not the same claim and we have not settled which is current.

Women Against Rape, Maun and the Northwest District

Women Against Rape is a human rights organisation based in Maun. In its own words, it "primarily supports abused women and children" and addresses the issues that contribute to their abuse, and it adds: "We have also extended our services to men who may need our assistance." It runs psychosocial counselling for survivors, their families and perpetrators, legal aid with the Attorney General's Chambers, a volunteer First Stop network, and a safe house.

Its stated mission is to reduce violence against women and children in the Northwest District, so this is a regional service rather than a national one.

Tel: 0800 600 387, the toll-free line the organisation publishes for an emergency

Tel: 71 311 244, which its contact page labels a 24-hour line, published as +267 71 311 244

Tel: 6860865, the office landline

Tel and WhatsApp: +267 72 568 069, +267 72 568 028 and +267 73 895 334, to speak to a counsellor

Tel: +267 72 568 086, the Gumare branch

Hours: the organisation labels 71 311 244 a 24-hour line. It publishes no hours for its other numbers.

Cost: not published. The first number sits in a toll-free range.

Languages: not published.

While you are waiting to be answered

A line that is open can still be busy, and two of the services above publish no hours at all. If you are waiting, try to stay with someone you trust, or ask someone to sit with you until the call connects.

If you have anything near you that you could use to harm yourself, put it somewhere harder to reach, or ask someone else to hold it for you. Distance and time both help.

If waiting is not possible, dial 999, or 997 for an ambulance if you are in one of the nine towns it covers, or go to the casualty department of your nearest hospital. You do not need an appointment and you do not need to explain yourself well.

If you are worried about someone else

Ask them directly. Asking someone whether they are thinking of suicide does not put the idea there, and it often comes as a relief to be asked plainly.

Listen more than you advise. You do not need the right words, and you are not expected to fix anything.

If they are willing, offer to sit with them while they phone one of the numbers above, or to make the call together. If they are in immediate danger, treat it as you would any medical emergency.

Supporting someone through this is heavy, and it is reasonable to want support of your own. The youth helpline answers at any hour, and the police number covers gender-based violence emergencies in the force's own words.

For services in other countries, see the list of helplines and suicide hotlines worldwide.

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