04 Mar 2015

Sowa Town Primary Health Care services under the Ministry of Health has partnered with Shadows Arts production to disseminate information and sensitise employees about the effects of HIV and AIDS at the work place.

In an interview with BOPA, the District AIDS coordinator (DAC) at Sowa Town Mr Thatayaone Maithamako stated that the fight against HIV and AIDS was still on.

He said although there were life prolonging initiatives such as Antiretrovirals (ARVs), condoms and preventative ones such as Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), it was still vital to spread information about the pandemic.

Mr Maithamako stated that most Batswana today take HIV lightly, noting that some people have the tendency of indulging in unprotected sex without knowing their partner ’status.

He stressed that Sowa Town was highly constituted of employees and therefore it was difficult to reach most people when holding campaigns in the morning since they will be at work.

The DAC said therefore they saw it fit to reach them at their workplace, hence organizing a three day workplace outreach, where they focused on Botash mine, Nxakato JSS and council workers.

He said people had the tendency of leaving their wives at home and starting new relationships at the workplace, a thing that contributes to multi concurrent partnerships (MCPs) and the risk of being infected by HIV.

Mr Maithamako stated that although they were faced with high cases of MCPs, they were working hard to spread the message and they have brought in drama groups such as Shadows to try to intensify the message.

He said drama plays were an essential part in spreading information since most people can associate with some characters in the play and the latter can contribute to behavioural change.

Furthermore, he said there were more men than women in Sowa Town and as the health care services, they have running activities such as Men Sector, which empowers men with the information about HIV.

In addition, he said they have revived Peer Approach Counselling by Teens (PACT) at schools and so far 50 students have been inducted.

He also added that they also have initiatives called STEPS, which is a social transformation programme that brings about discussions to the youth about HIV after watching educational videos.

Mr Maithamako also stressed that through those initiatives, they have managed to bring down HIV prevalence and teenage pregnancy cases.

For his part, the coordinator of Shadows Mr Oarabile Seboko stated that his group aims to spread information about all life’s ills, not only HIV and AIDS.

He said the group, which is mainly made of unemployed youth, competes on both constituency and presidential competitions level and it is aimed at improving lives through performing arts.

Mr Seboko praised Sowa Town council for giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills at the same time spreading educational message to the public.

He stressed that issues such as HIV and AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse as well as drunken driving affect the economy of Botswana negatively. ENDS