Africa-Press – Botswana. Mabu, an initiative by the Ministry of Health and the South African High Commission, is gaining momentum.
The initiative is meant to celebrate the birth of babies born first in the New Year in all the 18 health districts across the country.
The generous gesture was launched in 2022.
Officiating at the event in Gaborone on Friday, Minister of Health, Dr Edwin Dikoloti, said the intention was to enhance the spirit of Botho. He said communities were encouraged to help celebrate life and to join hands in helping one another especially after COVID-19 weakened the economy.
“Through this project, the baby born first in the year, in each of the 18 District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) is given some gifts comprising comprehensive hampers and key essentials necessary for newly born babies. A total of 18 babies benefited from the project when it started in the beginning of 2022,” said Minister Dikoloti.
He added that his ministry also used the project to drive some of its key messages on the importance of breastfeeding, nutrition, immunisation, general health care as well as financial management.
“The ministry’s child health division engages parents of the new born babies and educates them on how to best to take care of their babies thus allowing the ministry to propagate best practices on living healthily,” he said.
For her part, South African high commissioner, Ms Thaninga Shope-Soumah, acknowledged the initiative and extended gratitude to the key sponsors of the project being CA Sales, Choppies Botswana, Botswana Television, UNGWA Africa, Kalahari Training Institute, Woolworths Botswana and FLO-TEK. “The project is a success because of the donations from the various organisations and thus we are thankful. The donations I must mention are strictly in kind as no monetary donations are accepted for this project, hence donation entities continue to grow,” she said.
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