Battle against stigma won, then lost
Friday, April 03, 2015
Stepping out: Lekgetho during a recent event
Fiona Lekgetlho is HIV positive and committed to being a model for others in the fight against the disease’s spread in Botswana.
She is grateful for the amount of education given to Batswana about the disease over the years as it has reduced stigmatisation and discrimination against those infected. Fiona, however, says there is a new, closer type of stigmatisation.
It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment. We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it...