Borotiam is a village on

Abaiang Abaiang, also known as Apaiang, Apia, and in the past, Charlotte Island, in the Northern Gilbert Islands, is a coral atoll of Kiribati, located in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Abaiang was the island of the first missionary to arrive in the G ...

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

Kiribati Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...

. There are 375 residents of the village (2010 census). The nearest villages, to the north, are Tebunginako and Koinawa. Aonobuaka is to the east. The village has a medical clinic that is staffed by a Nursing Officer and the clinic is accessed by resident of the Borotiam and Tebunginako community. The lagoon coastline of Borotiam is being eroded by wave action. Borotiam (pronounced as "Borosiam") is named after

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

.More information on the origin of 'Borotiam' and link to Belgium
/ref>

and

have shared a historical tie which began with a Belgian

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

who arrived in

over a hundred years ago. He was so loving, devoted and committed to his congregation, that the people were deeply touched and decided to name their village as

. In the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

, this was written as Borotiam, a name which has been kept to this day as a symbol of the everlasting appreciation for the Belgian sacrifice that had contributed significantly to the progress and wellbeing of

References

Populated places in Kiribati {{Kiribati-geo-stub