03 Mar 2020

North East District (NED) has introduced a moonlight HIV testing campaign to mobilise and give an opportunity to all those who are reluctant to test during the day.

Speaking during a District Development Committee meeting in Masunga recently, NED AIDS coordinator (DAC), Mr Chris Moseki said this was due to the fact that some people still feared the stigma surrounding HIV testing, hence the DAC office and BOCAIP embarked on this campaign in Matsiloje.

He stated that a total of 19 men and five females tested in one of the nocturnal sessions and thus encouraged all to heed the call to test and do so in large numbers.

He revealed that more moonlight sessions would be rolled out across the district, which recorded 41 teenage pregnancy cases between October and December 2019, involving girls aged between 15 and 19.

Mr Moseki revealed that awareness campaigns had also since been organised across the district to stem the tide, adding that the District Health Management Team (DHMT) and the DAC office linked victims with social workers for counselling and to investigate some of the cases for possible defilement.

However, he stated that one of the challenges was that some families chose not to bring such cases to the attention of counsellors. Mr Moseki expressed worry that although it was an offence to have sexual intercourse with a minor, cases of defilement continued unabated.

He indicated that focus group discussions for in and out of school teenage girls between 13 and 19 years were held between October and December last year, to educate them about the dangers of teenage pregnancy.

“Four sessions were held at Masunga Senior Secondary School during the boot camp and a meeting at Mbalambi kgotla to raise awareness against teenage pregnancy,” he revealed.

The North East district AIDS coordinator also highlighted that in partnership with UNICEF, government had  developed the dissemination of adolescents and young people framework, social behavioural change and communication strategy to help address young people’s issues, teenage pregnancy among them ENDS