24 Mar 2019

First Lady Ms Neo Masisi has implored students, in particular, the girls to get their priorities right before engaging in anything that can affect their lives forever.

At the Girls Summit, which drew an attendance of over 200 students from 13 junior and two senior secondary schools of Tutume Sub-district in Tutume on March 22, Ms Masisi cautioned them that their future was determined by the journey they embarked on, which begins by setting up their goals.

She said research conducted sometime last year had indicated that the largest population section in Botswana was for people aged between 15 and 24, which the study found out that 22 per cent of them had their first sexual encounter at age 13 and even below. 

The First Lady noted that those at the age of 13 were mostly students at junior schools as they start to experience different things happening around them. 

“It is also at this stage that most of them lose their focus as a result of peer pressure and even engage in social ills which obscure their future dreams. 

They tend to engage in risky behaviours such as drug and alcohol abuse, sexual encounters where some even have multiple partners,  resulting in being exposed to sexually transmitted infections,” she said.

Ms Masisi advised them that once they realise they have fallen into these dangerous traps, they should immediately seek help and reconsider their goals and choices since at this stage the majority are still schoolling.

The Girls Summit was the second one to be held, having started in Palapye last October and to this, the First Lady noted that her intention was to reach to a good number of girls across the country. 

“The aim is to break the barriers and create an environment where girls will be able to open about every issue that affects their wellbeing,” she said. 

She said even though boys were included, the major focus was on girls who were vulnerable in society.

Earlier on in his welcome remarks, Kgosi Alphonse Nsala of Tutume appreciated the First Lady’s initiative of sensitising girls. 

He said girls compared to boys, were faced with many challenges that affected their lives in many ways, some of which the society still considered a taboo to talk about openly. 

He said with Ms Masisi taking up the role of breaking the barrier,  it would also help them as the leadership to bring parents on board and openly see the need to discuss such things. ends