21 Mar 2022

Lack of health information, poor personal hygiene early sexual relations are a number of health related challenges facing Lotlhakane East in Kanye North. 

In an interview, Kanye Seventh Day Adventist College of Nursing final year student, attached to Lotlhakane East clinic, Ms Tshegofatso Moloi said that while on attachment they found out that some upper primary school pupils engaged in sexual relations while the lower ones seemed to lack information on COVID-19 as they failed to adhere to protocols. 

This, she said, compelled the students (nursing students) to donate toiletries and hold a health day event on Friday. Prior to the Friday event, Ms Moloi said they conducted health talks, covering importance of good hygiene, risks of engaging in early sexual relations such as teenage pregnancy and STDs. 

She explained that they noticed that there were issues of poor personal hygiene amongst Maraka Junior School students. 

Having realised all this, she said they then visited affected schools to give health talks, adding that at a Junior School they donated toiletries, including toothpastes, toothbrushes, toilet papers, sanitary pads as well as soaps. 

“The donations were then given to students through their Guidance and Counselling Department, they identified the needy students and assisted them in that regard,” she said. 

Ms Moloi said having realised the challenges in the village, they then organised a health day to sensitise the public on health issues, adding that during the event, the residents were educated on different topics such as good nutrition, mental health, communicable and non-communicable diseases. 

Being at the clinic on daily basis, she said they noticed that there was congestion at the child welfare clinic, making social distancing impossible and they donated a bench to try and arrest the situation. 

Ms Moloi said they donated a gazebo to the COVID-19 vaccination team, a they did not have shelter for their activities adding that the gazebo would assist the team to effectively and efficiently carryout their job. 

On Friday, during the event, attendants were advised to visit different stalls for different services such as COVID-19 vaccination, HIV counselling and testing, blood pressure, blood sugar, pap smear testing as well as body mass index. 

She extended her gratitudes to those who made the day possible such as Saj hardware in Kanye who donated the gazebo, Mr Zakir Khan of ZM Trading for the snacks and printed t-shirts. 

Ms Moloi hailed employees of Lotlhakane police, Customary Court, schools and clinic for monetary contributions towards the event. 

Lotlhakane East Councillor, Mr Shimane Thelo said the event was important as it availed much needed health education. 

Councilor Thelo said the information came at the right time and would go a long way in addressing health issues in the area. 

He thanked the organisers for a successful event as well as all the individuals and companies for the donations. 

However the Councillor decried low numbers of nurses in the area, noting that more resources had to be availed to the clinic to successfully assist the public. 

“Our clinic vehicle is shared with other areas such as Diabo and Segwagwa, that is risky as there may be some emergencies where patients need to be transported to the hospital while the vehicle was at the other areas, “said Mr Thelo. Ends