21 Mar 2016

The fear of pain and assumed loss of sexual satisfaction have been indicated as factors that contribute to the low turnout by men to get circumcised.

Speaking during a Kweneng East safe male circumcision stakeholder breakfast meeting at Lemepe Lodge in Molepolole on Friday, the district’s programmes officer at National SMC office, Ms  Baitlhatswi Mokoke said the war to reaching the SMC target was not yet over due to some challenges, one of them being myths that were spread about SMC.

Ms Mokoke said another challenge was shortage of skilled manpower since staff gets special training to perform SMC, emphasising that it was not every nurse or doctor who could do it. She decried shortage of space for SMC services in small health facilities, adding that lack of transport also has an impact on conducting their campaigns.

It has been stated SMC  reduces men’s chances of becoming infected with HIV by 60 per cent and Kweneng East stands at 21 per cent HIV/AIDs prevalence,  out of a population of 250 000 hence  a worrisome number. 

Furthermore, Ms Mokoke emphasised on the need for empowering the community and the village leadership on the importance of SMC as well as strengthening counselling and support among SMC eligible clients, as well as training more personnel. She called on community leaders to help break social norms and clear myths that revolve around SMC and encourage people to circumcise. 

Ms Mokoke appealed to men in helping to reach out to their fellow men since they seem to be easily influenced by them. She also expressed concern over the fact that men who get circumcised tend to spread negative messages to uncircumcised individuals. Ends