13 Nov 2016

Former Botswana Defence Force Commander and founder of THC foundation, Lt Gen. Tebogo Masire has asked out of school youth to stand their ground against gender based violence issues.
Speaking to out of school youth during a gender based  workshop held at Taung kgotla on November 11, he encouraged the youth to break free from gender based violence which was mainly influenced by alcohol abuse.
He explained that young females who were not working are held prisoners by men who use them for pleasure because they were trapped in poverty and they were not independent.
Lt Gen. Masire said it was important for youth to be knowledgeable on issues that could help build their lives and also work hard to secure their future.
He urged the youth to stop being dependent on men because it gave them power to take control of their lives thus putting them at risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS leading to unhappy lives.
He explained that globally at least one in four women has experienced domestic violence in their lifetime and more than five children die every day as a result of child abuse.
Lt Gen. Masire said gender based violence figures in the country were alarming and THC foundation seeks to highlight the plight of women and children in the country.
He emphasised that one of the objectives of THC foundation was to provide training in skills development for women empowerment and to promote education by scaling up national awareness levels.
For his part, Community Home Based Care Trust project officer, Mr Gaborone Mothudi said most youth have turned into alcoholics.
He explained that most youth exposed their bodies to sexual transmitted diseases just for alcohol and drugs consequently dying before time.
He explained that a lot of youth were infected with HIV/AIDS because men tend to take advantage of them when they were drunk and fail to control themselves leading to rape cases.
“The body of young person took time to develop and be fully mature and the result of taking excessive alcohol and drugs put them in a danger of becoming mentally unstable,” he explained.BOPA