BOTSWANA: Men unwilling to be circumcised, funding stopped

Mmegi (Botswana)
August 29, 2013

Japan withdraw circumcision funds

by Onalenna Kelebeile

SELEBI-PHIKWE: A Japanese company JHPEGO, has withdrawn funding for Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) because the country failed to meet the target of 40 males per day. The programme known as SMC/MOVE was a national strategy that started in October 2012 and was supposed to go on for five years. The withdrawal of funding means that the programme stops less than a year after it started. Delivering the Urban Development Committee report recently Selebi-Phikwe District Officer Orishiwa Sitekia said the SMC/MOVE programme stopped due to lack of funds and the team halted work on August 15.

"Funds for this national strategy were withdrawn due to the programme failing to meet the set target of circumcising 40 males a day. "Only 10 males on average were circumcised in a day," she said.

Sitekia said SMC would continue to be done in local health facilities by the district health management teams.She said the SMC/MOVE under the Japanese company had a higher rollout than in the local health facilities Meanwhile, the urban development report shows that there was an insufficient supply of food in the local primary schools during the first quarter of 2013/14 financial year.

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Ilajewe FM
August 7, 2013

US STOPS FUNDING CIRCUMCISION PROGRAMME.

The United States government through the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has stopped funding Botswana’s Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) programme. Addressing residents of Khuduyamajako in Letlhakeng East recently, the Assistant Minister of Health, the Honourable Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri, said this was due to the unwillingness of men to be circumcised. He pointed out that government planned to have circumcised thousands of men by the end of this year and was concerned about the low turnout they had experienced since the inception of the programme.

“At least during the school vacation, almost 4 000 school going boys were circumcised,” he noted. On other issues, the honourable Matlhabaphiri expressed concern about the growing number of defaulters enrolled on the ARV programme. He was also worried that such patients did not follow doctor’s instructions on how to take their medication.
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