Tebelopele decry low couple turnout
Bonte Seepi | Wednesday August 23, 2017 16:22
Speaking during a youth meeting here over the weekend, Keneilwe Odirile, a social worker at Tebelopele, said they are still worried by people who come to test for HIV/AIDS as individuals though they have partners.
Odirile, who is also a community mobiliser, said they want to establish the huge disparity between the numbers of those people who test as individuals and those who come to test as couples. According to Odirile, in July they tested over 700 people, but only 20 did couple testing in Palapye. “The rest tested as individuals and these concerns us mostly because they were people who are above the age of 20, which means they are already engaged in relationships. They have partners and we are not saying couple testing should only be done by married couples. But even if one is in a relationship they should test with their partners,” Odirile said.
She explained that couple testing is very important, as couples get a chance to go through counselling together. She also noted that such counselling is a long term thing hence very important in a relationship.
She said during counselling some of the issues could be clarified, hence avoiding stigma of discrimination.
Furthermore, Odirile said that there are high possibilities of having different statuses during testing, but said as couples it could be easy to accept each other’s statuses and move on.
According to health workers, individual testing is one of the major causes of spreading HIV because it is difficult for one to tell his or her partner their status if they have tested HIV positive. Another Tebelopele social worker, Kelebogile Keaboditswe also shared the same sentiments encouraging resident of Palapye to do couple testing for their own advantage. Keaboditswe also complained about low female condom use, though its advantages are explained to them time and again. She encouraged women to stick to female condom saying that will avoid cases of unplanned pregnancies.
Keaboditswe called for proper condom use and use of personal lubricating gel, which is provided for free at Tebelopele and clinics to avoid condom bursts.
Meanwhile, BONELA representative, Boingotlo Ntebele condemned parents who continue use their children to source money from men. She said there are families that are continuing to violate children’s rights saying they have a sad case at BONELA whereby an older member of the family raped a two-year-old.
Ntebele also said since they started their community mobilisation project in Palapye last year they have arrested two parents who were denying their children the right to education by not allowing them to go to school.