Karonga Kachila Youth Initiative (KYI) on Friday donated sporting accessories to Karonga District Hospital to support youth friendly services at the facility.
The accessories which include Balls, Chess Boards and Playing Cards among others are valued at about K500,000.
Speaking in an interview following the donation, KYI Executive Director William Machona Ngwira, said they thought of donating to the hospital to support youth friendly services at the facility amid the low turnout of youths in teen clubs who are on Anti-Retro Therapy (ART).
He noted that failure by authorities to include youths in developmental programs among others has left youngsters with nothing to do except indulge in harmful behaviours hence the donation to the hospital’s teen clubs.
“The number of youths who are on ART and are defaulting on taking drugs is alarming in the district thus we thought of donating the sporting accessories in order to boost the numbers of youths who attend teen clubs at this facility,” he said.
Ngwira therefore hopes the donation and the construction of a recreational facility will go a long way in increasing the number of youths coming to seek assistance at the hospital through teen clubs.
In his remarks, Director of Health and Social Services at Karonga District Hospital David Sibale, expressed gratitude to the organization for donating the assaulted items to the hospital saying the donation is timely considering the challenges that the hospital faces.
“As a hospital we are supposed to procure such items for the youths, but we are an able due to resource constraints hence we are thankful to KYI for assisting us with such items for our teens,” he articulated.
According to statistics from the health authorities, HIV prevalence rate among young people in the district is about 50% and 29% out of all registered pregnancy cases are teenage pregnancies.
