29 Mar 2016

Young people serving under Office of the President  last Wednesday converged at Old Naledi Park where together with residents of the location celebrated the Month of Youth Against AIDS (MYAA).

Speaking at the celebration, reigning Miss Public Service,  Ms Lorato Force said the month of March was a period during which young people, in collaboration with various partners, held HIV and AIDS sensitisation, community mobilisation, outreaches and advocacy campaigns throughout the country.

Ms Force noted that such commemorations started in 1997 and had since been held every year with intention to raise HIV/AIDS awareness among the nation, especially the youth and to enhance their participation in the fight against the pandemic.

She however told attendants that while commemorations took place on the month of March, Botswana was the only country in the world that had set aside the whole month of March for youth to collaborate with various partners, hold HIV/AIDS sensitisation, community mobilisation and advocacy campaigns throughout the country.

Thus, she encouraged young people to reciprocate efforts by government to provide an enabling environment to succeed in their endeavours. 

She said the theme, Zero New HIV Infections. Zero Discrimination. Zero AIDS related Deaths, was relevant because it captured a collective goal as a nation since it implied having zero tolerance of HIV infections, discrimination against infected people and related deaths.

“I believe that the fight against HIV/AIDS can be won if we put prevention first and encourage young people with their positive energy to fight the HIV scourge and deliver a healthy and prosperous nation,” she said.  

Meanwhile, she said government was “extremely” worried that despite massive resource injection into programmes addressing HIV/AIDS, substantive knowledge of basic HIV information remained low in more than 50 per cent of the youth. 

The belief, she said, was that through MYAA commemorations such basic knowledge would eventually turn out to be a good practice.

Nevertheless, she said globally there had been a 38 per cent reduction in new HIV infections since 2001 adding that demonstrated that there was hope after all if young people committed to taking responsibility over their own lives.

Participants later engaged in litter picking which also saw young children actively taking part. Ends