Botswana’s National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA), in collaboration with Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, on Thursday launched the Southern African Development Community (SADC) project, which promotes the use of information and communication technology to enhance HIV prevention and intervention for youth in Botswana, Eswatini, and Lesotho.
The project aims to reduce new HIV infections among adolescents aged 15 to 24, with a focus on empowerment, advocacy, communication, and demand creation. The project team will conduct virtual and physical boot camps, train young people to engage with the digital forum for making a living, create documentaries featuring stories about youth, and create a digital youth magazine in the coming months.
“Accounting for 38 percent of new infections globally in 2017, the SADC region remains the epicenter of the epidemic, meaning that countries in the region need to invest in strategies to contribute to a further reduction,” said Rapetse Mathumo, director of Health Promotion of NAHPA during the campaign launch in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.
Mathumo stated that reducing HIV infection can be accomplished by focusing on priority populations that include young people, who contribute to greater infections in the majority of HIV/AIDS cases.
The initiative is funded by SADC and is being carried out by Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini. It will be implemented from Aug. 31 to March 31, 2024, and will be supervised by the three nations’ National AIDS Coordination Authorities.
According to the WHO 2018 HIV data, Eswatini has the highest HIV infection prevalence rate among adults aged 15-49, followed by Lesotho at 23.6 percent and Botswana at 20.3 percent.]