Social Development Deputy Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu along with Free State MEC of Social Development Motshidise Koloi in partnership with USAID will today launch ChommY- a social and behavioural change programme, in Ficksburg, Free State.
In a statement on Friday, the department said the launch forms portion of the Child Protection Week campaign which is commemorated under the theme: “Let us Protect Children during COVID-19 and Beyond”.
Observed under the theme; “Invest in my Future…Protect me Today”, ChommY aims to generate knowledge, develop skills, and empower young people to produce informed choices and contribute to reducing the high prevalence of HIV infections, substance abuse and prevention of teenage pregnancy.
In 2020, the Department of Social development estimated that there were 642 000 migrant children in South Africa, making it the country with the largest child migrant population on the continent.
The Child Protection Week (CPW) campaign is commemorated in the country annually to raise awareness of the rights of children as articulated in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and Children’s Act (Act No. 38 of 2005).
“ChommY in Setsoto Local Municipality is being launched in the context of the Department’s You Only Live Once (YOLO) programme which was launched in 2015 to educate young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years about HIV/Aids, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and being agents of social change. YOLO was established as fraction of the Department’s Comprehensive Strategy on HIV and Aids,” the department said.
According to Statistics South Africa’s 2018 HIV Prevalence Report, HIV prevalence among the youth aged 15 – 24 declined over time from 6.7% in 2002 to 5.5% in 2018.
According to the department, despite the decline, to date, HIV infections amongst the youth remain relatively high. This is hugely attributed to the behavioural, social, and structural drivers of HIV, which contribute to youth being vulnerable to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
“Upon assessment of the YOLO programme, one of the findings was the distinct omission of children aged between 10 and 14, while reports acquire shown that some of them were already involved in risky sexual and social behaviour.
“Setsoto Local Municipality borders the Kingdom of Lesotho resulting in high numbers of undocumented children. South Africa as signatory to different international conventions, including the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, and the African Charter on the Rights and welfare of the Child, is obligated to agreement every child who lives within the borders of the country to receive all basic services including healthcare, education, food and shelter,” the department said.
ChommY, a colloquial term for “friend” seeks to build a positive friendship among children of between 10 and 14 years and to encourage young boys and girls to motivate one another to minimise risky behaviour and social ills, including, bullying.
The programme gives children the opportunity to develop a personal region for their lives and emphasises the importance of support from parents and communities to enable young people to fabricate informed decisions.
The programme forms section of a basket of Social Behavioural Change (SBC) programmes offered by the Department of Social Development.
Children from Setsoto Local Municipality will form portion of the launch and participate in indigenous games, share their social experiences and solutions and interact with the programme’s mascot Bokamoso. –SAnews.gov.za
Undergrad Split
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”
Daffy Girl
USSR: You have two cows. But you wish this was not the case, because in Soviet Russia, cow milk you.