27 Jul 2015

The Safe Male Circumcision campaign (SMC) is said to be going at a snail pace in Ramotswa.

In an interview, Safe Male Circumcision programme officer at Emmanuel Counselling Centre, Mr Batumi Judge said they were facing challenges of community mobilisation.

He said this causes delay in reaching their target and added that the challenge was compounded by lack of resources to boost their campaign.

Mr Judge said they had targeted to circumcise 300 males in three months, but that they only managed to reach 38 clients.

He said when schools closed they came up with a campaign which targeted 150 males aged between 15 and 29, and that they only managed to reach 36.

He said it was difficult to penetrate through this age group due to a number of reasons such as fear for surgery and other myths.

Mr Judge noted that this was the same age group with the high prevalence of HIV infection.

The focal person for SMC, Mr Obuile Makwati said since the African Comprehensive AIDS partnership (ACHAP)’s withdrawal last year August, they were facing financial challenges. Ends