The conference aims to confront a growing list of social ills, including the proliferation of drugs and illicit substances, homelessness/ street children, high divorce rates, crime and rising levels of corruption. Botswana has in the recent past experienced a concerning increase in violent crime, with the Botswana Police Service reporting a steady rise in armed robberies and Gender Based Violence (GBV) over the last three years, trends that organisers say make the gathering particularly urgent. It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment.
We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it…
