The main aim of the event was to bring awareness to the community of Nwamitwa about the unrest of sexually transmitted infections and how they can be prevented. “We are here to talk to you about the sexually
transmitted infections, particularly HIV/Aids. We also look at ways to avoid and prevent these diseases. The government offers free condoms and we want to demonstrate the usage of these condoms so that you know how to use them properly” said Dr Madambi Shilumani, provincial general manager for HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted infections. Community members were given a podium to ask questions which they felt need to be addressed by the MEC of Health Ishmael Kgetjepe.
“We are here to give address about diseases we get during sexual activities. These diseases are scary to talk about but if we continue with the silence the more power these infections have on us as a nation. We are
unable to get medical attention because we are afraid to talk about these infections and the most painful thing is most of these diseases are preventable and curable. We have to talk about these infections so that we have the
knowledge about them and don’t get infected. We can also use condoms from government clinics and hospitals for free” said Kgetjepe.
A lot of non profit organizations like ANOVA, FAMSA, Agri-AIDS, CHoiCe Trust, Ramochinyadi HIV/AIDS Youth Guide were at the event to conduct HIV counselling and testing, distribution of condoms.
“We have to education our children who haven’t engaged in sexual activities so that they know about these diseases so that when they start they know how to protect themselves” added Kgetjepe.
Kgetjepe also spoke about tuberculosis (TB). He emphasized that TB still remains once of the serial killers in our communities. “TB is a killer disease and many deaths are caused by it, yet it is curable. It pains me a lot to see people die from something that can be cured” expressed Kgetjepe.
The community of Nwamitwa complained about shortage of nurses, medication and clinics in the area. “The issue of nurses being scarce is because we don’t have qualified people whom we can hire, but I’ve urged the
nurses at the clinic to escalate the matter to the district. I joined the health department in June 2014 and I found projects as old as from 2010 which stopped due to lack of funds. In the next financial year when we got funds we
continued with those projects so that they got completed. We had a shortage of vehicles but that has been sorted out now and mobile clinics will be visiting the affected areas more often from now on” concluded Kgetjepe.
