17 Sep 2013

Elderly people have been urged to lead an exemplary life by accessing services that promote HIV prevention and healthy lifestyles. The Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri said taking the lead will encourage the youth to follow in the footsteps of their elders.

Officiating at opening of the Francistown College of Education (FCE) cluster campus health centre and Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) campaign in Francistown on September 13, Mr Matlhabaphiri said the Ministry of Health had launched an intense SMC campaign so as to create a platform conducive to the young to understand the importance of fight against HIV/AIDS and related diseases.

By bringing services closer to the intended target group, the assistant minister said they would like to encourage young people to register and consent to undergo the SMC procedure and seek HIV counselling and testing.

“Youth are a sensitive group, which get carried away easily by things that may destroy their lives and by bringing services that are user friendly to them, we aim to divert their interests into things that will change their lives for the better,” he said.

He further stated that AIDS related deaths called on all Batswana to be committed to subscribe to ways that would achieve zero new infections as per the country 2016 vision, noting that in accordance with Botswana AIDS Impact Survey III, one out of four sexually active Batswana is HIV positive.

As such, this challenging and worrisome statistics calls on young people to adopt ways of preventing further the spread of HIV so as to have a better future.

“I would like to motivate the youth to change the image of Botswana by subscribing to positive behaviours that promote prevention of the transmission and spread of HIV,” he emphasised.

Meanwhile the project coordinator, Ms Margret Baiketsi, who is also a Tertiary Education Council (TEC) member, explained that through the project, they would like to bring services closer to the students.

Ms Baiketsi further said they aimed at promoting health and wellness issues within the tertiary community while at the same time capacitating them with facilities that will help them to carry out their intended goals of promoting a healthy community.

Furthermore, she highlighted that since it is the beginning of the project, tertiary institutions in the Francistown region have been classified under clusters of FCE and Institution of Health Sciences (IHS) because they did not have enough funds to distribute porta cabins in all the institutions which will be used as the service centres.

However, she said before the end of the year, Tonota College of Education (TCE) will be relocated from FCE to its own centre at their college as way of cutting the distance between Tonota and Francistown. Ends