09 Mar 2016

Athlone Hospital employees on Friday took their service to the Youth Friendly Service clinic (YFS) housed at the hospital, to paint it with youth friendly bright colours as a way of making it attractive to the youth.

A building that once looked dull, with its paint peeling off now looks bright as it now bristles with purple, lime and orange colours.

Adolescence Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) focal person Ms Matshediso Bathobakae told BOPA that the clinic was first opened mid 2011 adding that it was opened mainly to cater for young people with the aim of making them feel free to express themselves away from elderly people.

Ms Bathobakae said that the clinic offers services like general counselling, sexual reproductive health information, antenatal and post natal care.
She also said that the clinic focuses on the youth aged between 10-29 years.

She continued to say that the youth has been utilising the clinic since its establishment as they meet young people from as far as Gaborone and surrounding areas.
She further said as the staff of YFS they face a challenge of space as they only have one consultation room and the waiting area is just an open area that does not accommodate patients during bad weather.

She said the state of the clinic was not appealing to the youth so they decided to paint with bright colours to attract the youth.
Ms Bathobakae explained that it has always been their dream to paint their structure as the colours match those in the signage giving directions, hence making it easier for people to locate them in the hospital premises.

She said she wished to see their structure partitioned so as to accommodate the conditions of different young people and also that they deserve a better structure than the current one.  
She continued to explain that they want the clinic not only to be about diseases but for recreational matters as well.

She encouraged the youth to use their clinic services and staff to their advantage.
“As the YFS clinic in Athlone, we appreciate the other youth service providers who collaborated with other stakeholders to make this painting a success,” said Ms Bathobakae.

Other stakeholders who took part in this event were Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, YFS focal person nurses from different clinics, Letsopa JSS, Lobatse Brigade, Word of Africa, peace corps volunteers, health education office representatives and also representatives from the matron’s office. Ends