30 Apr 2015

Keitiretse would spend the better part of her day indulging in alcohol at Ngala-o-bowe depot. Such drinking sprees would often expose her to a plethora of social ills such as rape.

Nonetheless, she was nonchalant. Often she would hang out with some notorious drug dealers and proven drunkards who lived worthless lives.

She was often used by her chain of boyfriends just so that she could ‘quench’ her thirst for ‘the babylon waters’ as the drinking fraternity would affectionately call alcoholic beverages. However, one lucky day a team of Fokotsa Dino Campaign descended on her house unannounced before she could hit the road to continue where she left off the previous night.

Clad in their campaign gear and in possession of some campaign literature the team managed to convince Keitiretse to accord them some audience, a result of which led to a changed lifestyle. She did not only visit drinking spots occasionally but sought employment and earned herself a salary that changed her life for the better.

However, many have travelled a road rougher than Keitiretse’s hence Serowe District Health Management Team’s intervention the through Fokotsa Dino Campaign to curb excessive alcohol consumption in their area of jurisdiction.

The team consists law enforcement officers such as the police and bye law officers, nurses and district officers, amongst others.

Though challenges towards curbing excessive alcohol consumption are inevitable, the campaign crew is realising some changes in drinking patterns as well as drinking spots adhering to hours of operation.

“Some wards in Serowe which were infamous for illegal trading of alcohol have shown some tremendous improvements as fewer incidences are reported,” psychiatric nurse at Sekgoma Memorial Hospital, says Ms Malebogo Motsokono, in response to a questionnaire.

Ms Motsokono, who also forms part of the Fokotsa Dino Campaign team, observes that unlawful and dangerous alcoholic beverages such as “Mahindra” were no longer sold, thanks to law enforcement agencies.

She reckons that members of the community were proactive at reporting illegal trading of alcoholic beverages or substance abuse. The anti-alcohol and drug abuse busters have found that people no longer engage in drinking sprees at the bus rank. There is adherence to alcohol trading hours and reduction in the number of people who go to bars save for holidays and festive season when people indulge in festivities.

“The hype of the festive season changes the situation,” the psychiatric nurse concedes but points out that the situation was now back to normal. Not only that, Ms Motsokono and her team have realised that incidences of public nuisance such as loud music from drinking spots are fewer unlike in the past where operators played to the capacity of their musical instruments.

However, as expected, Ms Motsokono reveals that dagga abuse among young persons was rife and perpetrators were usually incarcerated or kept in police custody for committing different offences under the influence of such substances.

Some of these abuses resulted in school dropouts, incidences of assaults and insults by abusers. Those who have been affected by alcohol abuse, Ms Motsokono states, were often admitted in the psychiatric unit at Sekgoma Memorial Hospital while some were referred to social workers and psychologists for psychotherapy.  

As a sign of improvment, Ms Motsokono reports that a number of referred clients for counseling had increased. Such interventions have been necessitated by the team’s commitment and advice to alcohol and drug abusers to seek professional help while at the same time advising that people should shun drugs such as glue and dagga.

As the team endeavours to nip alcohol and drug abuse problem in the bud, programme officers are deployed at different schools as resource persons to catch them young and sensitize participants on the dangers of alcohol abuse besides benefits of staying alcohol free.

As part of the outreach programme in the Serowe DHMT almost all the villages have community volunteers stationed at clinics and health posts to help spread the word.
Their main targets are beer sellers, shebeen operators and tourists while also targeting roadblocks as some of the avenues utilised to combat alcoholism. Ends