US envoy opens Tebelopele office

The US ambassador to Botswana, Stephen Nolan, said this at the official opening of a Tebelopele Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) in Francistown on Tuesday.

"Leadership has begun to pay off in terms of the thousands of lives that are being saved and prolonged; in the reduction of mother to child transmission rates to just under four percent and in the availability of Anti-Retroviral Therapy to more than 16, 000 Batswana," he said. Nolan complimented the Botswana government saying that strong leadership and proactive policies are important elements in the country's success. "Just as important, however, is the kind of grassroots civil society leadership we see represented today.