Africa-Press – Botswana. A communication gap between parents and children has been identified as an obstacle in harnessing conversational opportunities in the home context.
Speaking during training of trainers workshop in Kanye on Wednesday, principal education officer for HIV/AIDS Life skills, Ms Jane Gaongalelwe said such a gap ended up making adolescents highly vulnerable to various forms of social ills.
Ms Gaongalelwe said Botswana signed Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) commitment which emphasised the need for parent-child communication.
She highlighted that the countries agreed to address issues of comprehensive adolescence sexuality education hence the decision to include such topics in the school curriculum.
The curriculum, she said was rights-based, took cognisance of the age appropriateness, cultural sensitivity and was scientifically accurate.
“Before implementation of the curriculum, different stakeholders were consulted and they all agreed to it,” she said.
She said they therefore organised training of trainers workshop to equip attendees with knowledge, which would assist in ensuring that the commitment was fulfilled.
“We believe working with parents on a common agenda would bear fruits,” she added.
Ms Gaongalelwe said the workshop wanted participants to recognise the complexities surrounding the challenges facing children and young people and appreciate the signed ESA commitment in addressing them.
The participants were to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes surrounding sexuality and reproductive health issues and establish ways of navigating them with lasting effects.
The workshop also aimed to locate the role and purpose of Parent Child Communication (PCC) as a national strategy in dealing with young people’s issues and concerns as well as recognising the instruments and tools currently available when programming for PCC developed for the Botswana context.
Ms Gaongalelwe noted that the workshop was attended by different government departments, dikgosi, PTAs and other relevant stakeholders.
At the end of the training, she said, the participants would have to share the knowledge acquired with residents at their different localities.
“They should be in a position to facilitate in disseminating the knowledge at their various localities,” she said.
Presentations delivered during the training included understanding human growth and development, communication, cultural norms and sexual practices.
Presenting on communication, Kanye Umbrella PTA executive committee secretary, Mr Thabang Maeco said effective communication between parents and children was vital in ensuring smooth transition from adolescence to adulthood.
“Effective communication assist parents to connect with their children, which is vital in grooming responsible future leaders,” he added.
Communication, he said, also build trust, avoided misunderstandings, adding that failure to get proper information by adolescence, might lead to getting wrong and distorted information from peers and social media.
“Parent-child communication is vital in children’s upbringing hence the need for parents to be open to their children thereby creating a conducive communication environment,” he said.He said the message to the youth should be logical and clear, for them to fully understand it, further noting that communication should not be hindered by factors such as culture, religion, age, gender, disability and many others.
Mr Maeco said in some cultures, there were topics that were not discussed with children, adding that such barriers should be addressed in order to achieve effective communication.
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