10 Mar 2022

Stakeholders have been challenged to assist in mobilising communities by enhancing awareness and attraction towards Malaria and COVID-19 vaccine.

Speaking during leadership sensitisation workshop in Letlhakeng on Tuesday, health promotion officer at Letlhakeng District Health Management Team (DHMT), Ms Seneo Ranonyana, said community leaders could act as agents of change through community engagement to identify misinformation and other related issues.

Ms Ranonyana’s words followed the mushrooming of Malaria cases in the sub-district since January. 

Kweneng west has recorded 11 cases of Malaria and three deaths since January to date.

“The high number of cases warranted investigations to establish factors that could have aided the transmission,” she said.

She said stakeholders could use kgotla and council meetings, announcements during funeral and wedding gatherings to mobilise the members of the public alongside other mobilisation strategies such as media outreach through radio, television and newspapers.

“Mobilisation promotes ownership and decision making and encourages collaboration between individuals and organisations,” she said.

Ms Ranonyana said they were faced with challenges, which included hard to reach places where communities complicated health issues due to late healthcare-seeking.

She also noted that lack of transport, culture, ignorance or reluctance by the community in getting the vaccine made it difficult for them to undertake their job but noted that through stakeholder participation and ownership, service delivery could be easily achieved.

Advocacy officer from National Malaria Programme, Ms Chebukani Nkobodo, said Botswana was among the World Health Organisation categories of countries for Malaria elimination by 2025.

She said most Malaria cases in Botswana were local and transmission was seasonal commonly between October and May.  She further said there had been 186 cases and six deaths reported since  January 1  to date.

She added that Botswana had made a significant stride in the reduction of Malaria, adding that for the past 11 years, Malaria cases had been reduced by 40 per cent, with the milestone attributed to improved Malaria case surveillance, community engagement and vector control activities.

When sharing the objectives of the sensitisation workshop, community health nurse, Ms Shirley Kejelepula, said the intention was to strengthen collaboration, partnership and networking with stakeholders and leverage leadership support at all levels to promote dialogue and buy-in.

She said they also want to create continuous awareness and also sensitize stakeholders on Malaria and COVID-19.

In her opening remarks, Chief Medical Officer for Letlhakeng Sub-district DHMT Dr Janet Tieng’o said the meeting would help with publicity strategies to address the high malaria cases. BOPA