21 Aug 2014

Cervix makes a woman exceptional and hence the organ should be taken care of by way of regular vinegar tests, Ms Ouma Rammidi  told a gathering of women in Serowe on August 20. 

Speaking at a kgotla meeting, Ms Rammidi, who is cycling to raise health concerns, informed the women audience that the recently introduced vinegar test presented instant results, unlike the Pap smear that could take up to a year of waiting. 

She said her mission was, among others, to help address women empowerment and survival skills and issues of moral. She appealed to women to be patient and endure long queues at health facilities since their health was at stake. 

She said she felt inclined to spread the cervical cancer message after she lost her mother to cancer and that the pain she felt forced her to inform many more women in rural areas about the dreaded ailment. 

“Because I was very fortunate that my parents sent me to school abroad, I felt obliged to help other Batswana especially women,” said the Kanye woman who was born and bred in Lobatse. 

She added that her love for Botswana also played a part in her voyage towards helping Batswana as she traversed the length and breadth of the country. 

On other issues, Ms Rammidi challenged women to emulate her success as a hardworking artist. 

She encouraged women against expecting to be provided for by men even though men were by nature expected to protect and provide for their families. 

She called on women to engage in empowerment programmes that could uplift their lives and criticised those women who happily wrecked marriages. 

“Respect your men even though there are those men who inundate me with questions of equality,” she said, adding that equality did not remove certain responsibilities from men folks. 

She further discouraged women from exhausting their income on alcohol and drugs, arguing that such irresponsible acts could end up in divorce. 

Ms Rammidi is cycling from Gaborone and will make stops in villages along her route such as Mahalapye, Serowe, Maun, Ghanzi, before retracing her steps to the capital city again.  ENDS