13 Jun 2019

 First Lady Ms Neo Masisi has encouraged the Maun community to collaborate with stakeholders in efforts to address challenges young people are faced with.

Ms Masisi, who is Botswana’s ambassador on youth issues was addressing young people and the community leadership in Maun on June 12 as part of the Dipalametse campaign.

The initiative, spearheaded by the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA), formerly NACA, was aimed at fast tracking HIV/AIDS, gender based violence, teenage pregnancy as well as substance and drug abuse interventions.

Ms Masisi said teenage pregnancy statistics at Maun Senior Secondary showed that 15 students got pregnant in 2018 and 18 in 2019, which was of great concern.

She encouraged students to desist from inter-generational relationships with the so called ‘blessers’ or ‘sugar daddies’ and focus on their education.

In addition, she said statistics showed that adolescents and youth aged between 15 and 24 accounted for 49 per cent of new HIV/AIDS infections, with lack of knowledge on HIV/AIDS as one of the contributing factors to new infections.

Other factors, she said, were drug abuse, casual sex and multi-concurrent partners among young people. She said another worrying factor was that adolescents indulged in sex at an early age, some below 13.

Ms Masisi pointed out that the ‘Dipalametse’ campaign was the starting point for a sprint towards zero HIV/AIDS infections by 2030, only 10 years from now.

She noted that no satisfactory results were realised in ending HIV/AIDS new infection despite government’s efforts to dedicate monies and sensitisation programmes towards the fight against the scourge.

The First Lady emphasised the need for combined efforts among young people, parents, government as well as non-government organisations.

Parents, she said, must strengthen their relationships with their children and learn to freely discuss issues of sexuality as well as revisit traditional strategies such as taboos.

She said social workers and guidance and counselling teachers should create a platform that would help mentor parents on addressing their teenagers on issues of sexuality.

In her remarks, Batawana’s Kgosi Kealetile Moremi appreciated Ms Masisi’s role as an ambassador in addressing issues of adolescents and young people.

Young people, she said, needed strong and committed parents noting that modern parenting was affected by issues of social media and television which had a negative influence on children.

Kgosi Moremi encouraged parents to take the moulding of children seriously.

Some Maun Senior Secondary students cited lack of parent-child communication regarding issues of sexuality as one main contributor in teenage pregnancy.

 

Others argued that dialogue should include issues of boys and ‘sugar mummies’. ENDS