11 Jun 2017

Different stakeholders on June 9 came together to bring services to the youth of Mabutsane and Kanaku through a youth festival themed: Empower the youth, build the nation.

Assistant district AIDS coordinator for Mabutsane sub-District, Mr Kennedy Dintwe said the objective of the festival was to raise awareness among the youth on important issues such as entrepreneurship, good health and life skills.

“We wanted the youth to meet face to face with different service providers and to engage on issues affecting them,” he said.

He said since teenage pregnancy was one of the challenges facing the youth in the district, they collaborated with stakeholders such as Humana People to People, District Health Management Team and the Botswana Police Service.

He said 18 teenage pregnancies were recorded in the sub-district in the last quarter, two of which were defilement cases.

He said they, therefore, found it crucial to collaborate with stakeholders who could sensitise the youth on sexual reproductive health, HIV testing as well as defilement.

Furthermore, Mr Dintwe noted that they applied a holistic approach to the initiative by also bringing stakeholders such as LEA to educate the youth about life skills and starting their own businesses.

He said even though some young people had started businesses through government programmes, there was need to empower them further to sustain the businesses.

He also underscored the need for young people to lead healthy lifestyles and test for non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and sugar diabetes.

He encouraged them to be physically active in order to attain good health. ENDS