24 Jan 2017

Many young people are affected by issues of HIV/AIDS, STIs and alcohol abuse, according to national coordinator of comprehensive sexuality education at Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Ms Pinkie Apadile.

When giving remarks at  a comprehensive sexuality education workshop in Gaborone recently, Ms Apadile said youth should be educated about adolescent growth and development.

She said information should be shared to the youth about how to take care of themselves in order to  live healthy lives.

She said the major objectives of the workshop were to discuss adolescent growth, young people and crime, sharing statistics available on gender violence, STI’s and AIDS of the youth and recommendations to reduce the challenges. Ms Apadile stated that Botswana had signed a commitment with 21 countries that helped them to address issues affecting the youth.

For his part, Superintendent Meshack Pulenyane of Botswana Police Service said  they experienced uncooperative behaviour and anger from the youth and most of them due to the influence of alcohol and drugs.

He also said they had recorded 569 accidents and youth aged 18-35 years were involved in those accidents.

Superintendent Pulenyane said more youth were involved in cases such as drunken drinking, over speeding, careless driving, causing death under the influence of drugs, house breaking, rape, car theft and robbery.

He added that some of the illegal drugs were from other countries and they had managed to identify the location around Gaborone where those drugs were packaged. He advised the participants to help them to fight crime. ENDS