AIDS spread among youth alarms coordinator

PINI BOTHOKO
Correspondent | Friday June 28, 2013 00:00

Mathumo said this at a Community Capacity Enhancement through community conversation on Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) workshop held on Wednesday.Francistown District AIDS Coordination Office from Primary Health Care Services and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Ultimate Youth With Destiny organised the workshop to sensitise parents on the need to stem the tide of the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.

She said that teenage pregnancy is high in Francistown especially among school-going children and they would like parents to help come up with solutions on how to deal with health problems affecting their children.Mathumo said most teenagers who get pregnant while schooling reside in low-income locations of Gerald Estate, Monarch and Somerset. It was for this reason  that they decided to host the workshop with parents from these townships.'We realised that there has been a missing link in communication between parents and their children about sexual issues. We hope after this workshop parents will be open enough to discuss sexual issues with their children, ' she said.

The main idea of hosting the workshop was to interrogate the parents' role in curbing teenage pregnancy and up sex education. 'It is our concern when teenage pregnancy increases every year because they might be involved in sexual relationships with the 23 percent of the people living with HIV/AIDS that we have in the city of Francistown, 'she said.Mathumo said whenever a pregnancy occurs it shows that there was an unsafe sexual activity that took place. He said what they do not know is whether a condom was not available or because as children, they would not have a say in its use during sexual intercourse with a knowledgeable adult.

She said that they want to discuss with parents how to approach their children and discuss sexual issues with them as usually tradition limits parents to be open with their children.She said that they want parents' help in preaching abstinence amongst children so that they cannot be infected by HIV/AIDS at early stages, because they (the children) have been active in the donation of clean blood. Mathumo said that Francistown is number three from the top with the highest number prevalence of HIV/AIDS but they intend to stop re-infection especially among teenagers.'This is your chance as parents to be responsible and take part in raising your children because teachers have been complaining that as parents you have abandoned all the responsibility to them, ' said Mathumo.