02 Jul 2015

Chairperson of Borolong Village Health Committee, Ms Kehumile Oaitse, has stated that behavioural change, especially among the youth, remains a challenge.

Speaking during an interview recently, Ms Oaitse said this was evidenced by an increasing rate of teenage pregnancies. She said the hardest hit category was that of people aged between 17 and 25 years, noting that some of them were still students.

“It is unfortunate that youth still indulge in risky practices that eventually expose them to unplanned pregnancies and repeated sexually transmitted infections,” she said.

She said although they usually conducted health talks about the use of contraceptives, abstinence and implications of early pregnancies, it was clear that youth did not heed the messages.

“With these kinds of issues continually cropping up, it is clear that youth do not take the given advice into consideration and they do not give their health a priority. The risky practices that they indulge in also make it difficult for us because they defy our efforts to sensitise and educate the community about HIV/AIDS and other health issues,” she said.

Ms Oaitse also lamented that some youth fail to register for ante-natal classes as such they never attend programmes such as pre and post HIV counselling and others.
She said some even fail to enrol for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS programme despite knowing that they are HIV positive.

“Some youth are aware of their HIV status but they just stay home and only come to the clinic when they are due for delivery as such it becomes a challenge for them to enroll on PMTCT programme,” she said.

Ms Oaitse also expressed concern about individuals who are reluctant to visit health facilities for routine check-ups, screening for various diseases and for information on other health issues.
“People should be concerned about their health status and not only visit health facilities when they are ill,” she said. Ends