14 Sep 2014

Gumare Clinic offers what is dubbed Youth Friendly Services (YFS) to young people aged 10-29 years, the principal registered nurse with the Gumare Clinic, Ms Ntombi Nyame has said.

Speaking to BOPA in an interview, Ms Nyame said youth were facing challenges that needed specially trained and friendly people who understand them better.

She said at the Gumare Clinic, they offered a variety of youth friendly services that included health messages through health talks, sexually transmitted infection screening and treatment, examination of breast cancer, cervical cancer screening and a whole lot more.

She said they also provided outreach services during school meetings to strengthen parent-child communication. 

Ms Nyame further said they had special YFS whereby every weekday in the afternoon and mornings during weekends they play games such as snooker, darts, chess, monopoly, scrabble and table tennis with the youth and also plan to widen the services by including traditional games.

She said they took breaks every day for a while to give out health messages mainly to make youth feel free to visit the clinic.

She said the service was mainly for people aged 10-29 years though they cannot turn down older people who come to play with the youth. 

In addition, they are in partnership with dikgosi, District Aids Coordinator (DAC), police officers, guidance and counselling teachers, youth officers, and Health Management Team (HMT) heads, she said.

Consequently, she said they had big plans for the clinic in order to accommodate youth as teenage pregnancy was a big concern in their region. 

She noted that at the beginning of the programme youth response was low but now they come in large numbers both male and female.

The senior nurse explained that the project was made possible through help from the Ministry of Health and support from Gumare Primary Hospital and the clinic management. She encouraged the youth to come to Gumare Clinic and make use of available resources. 

On other issues, she pleaded with parents to encourage their children to visit the clinic to learn and also play available games. She said there were friendly people at the clinic willing to help these youths.

Mr Onkemetse Salepito, a health education assistant at the Gumare Clinic said YFS targeted both male and female youth, adding that the initiative started at the beginning of the Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) campaign in order to try and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst the youth, as well as encourage males to perform SMC.

Mr Salepito said no membership was needed for one to visit the clinic and play the games. He said they teach people through adverts on shops and notice boards and during school meetings. 

A 20-year-old, Kenalemodisa Monga applauded the initiative saying it taught them about health services like appropriate use of condoms and also encouraged SMC. Mr Monga said youth visited the clinic to play snooker as a way of recreation. 

Ms Lorato Sakaria, a 21-year-old, on the other hand thanked the Gumare Clinic management for introducing the initiative saying he no longer went to the bar where the environment is not safe and where he often ended up using his money to play snooker. He now visits the clinic to play for free. ENDS