06 Mar 2019

Ngami District Health Management Team (DHMT) had praised six students from Francistown Institute of Health Science for demonstrating commitment towards primary healthcare.

Speaking during the commemoration of SADC Healthy Lifestyle day facilitated by the students who were attached at Maun Clinic, DHMT official, Ms Golebaone Makolo hailed them for impacting positively on the lives of Maun community.

She said the students had shown that indeed they were the health ambassadors, adding that through their community assessment, they had managed to promote healthy lifestyles and practices among the community.

“These students have really done a lot for our community as they managed to do their assessment perfectly and now they had organised SADC Healthy Lifestyle commemoration to encourage healthy lifestyles,” she said.

She further said she was touched by the testimony of one of the traditional beer sellers,  Ms Kago Masake, well known to the community as ‘Mmambakata’ who took a bold step to stop the business after an assessment and teachings by the students.

Ms Makolo said it was a miracle to have such students in the area, who could make a huge difference, noting that Ms Masake had been in the business for 12 years and health teams had been making efforts to sensitise her about the repercussion of her product, but their efforts had failed.

She said it was encouraging that such institutions as Institution of Health Services (IHS) were grooming future health practitioners of a high calibre.

Ms Makolo further noted that the students through their community assessment had decided to assist to raise funds to build a house for one needy patient at Sedie ward in Maun.

She said the students had so far engaged with the community, businesses, parastatals and individuals to help them raise funds towards their project.  

The students’ representative, Ms Dineo Babili said their stay in Maun had taught them many good things, adding that they had  first hand experience of what was happening on the ground.

She said interacting with community had revived the spirit of giving and love as they were touched to find some patients homeless, hence they decided to house one of their patients at Sedie.

Ms Babili noted that they had two weeks to finish the project before going back to school.

Boyei ward councillor, Mr Ntlogelang Kebonyekgotla appreciated the good work by DHMT in collaboration with the students, noting that alcohol and drug consumption in Maun was worrisome.

He said the student’s engagements and messages would go a long way in helping the community of Maun to see their health as priority and appreciate that non-communicable diseases are the leading causes of death globally.

Mr Kebonyekgotla urged the public to stop abusing alcohol and smoking, which he said were attributed to over 7.1 million deaths every year. Ends