Investing in young peoples’ health is investing in future

Mbabane: The Minister of Sports Culture and Youth Affairs, Harries Madze Bulunga has called on collective collaborations towards investing in the health of the youth.

Bulunga said this when officially receiving Ludzeludze Youth Centre structure from the Ministry of health on behalf of the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs.

The structure according to Bulunga will be used with the Eswatini National Youth Council (ENCY) and the main goal being to have the Youth Centre serve as one-stop centre for all sorts of services and information that young people might want to access.

Bulunga noted that, health is one of the biggest and most important services to any young person, therefore plans were already in place to offer health education and services in the centre.

Eswatini has over 70% of the population who are 35 years and under, Bulunga said his ministry cannot delay in up scaling efforts to reach every young person with relevant and tailor made health services and education. “The future of our country rests with our youth and investing in their health is investing in our future”, he said

The centre was refurbished with help from the Ministry of Health, Georgetown University, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as Micro-Projects.

In helping refurbish the centre the Ministry of Health’s main goal is to work hand in hand with the Ludzeludze Community through the Business Process for Impact (BPI) project in formulating local solutions to the health challenges faced by the community, particularly those brought about by HIV and AIDS as well as TB.

In doing this, the Ministry of Health will be able to deliver evidenced-based and community informed decision making and financing to the health threats that are HIV and TB.

Furthermore, this program is clearly aligned with the decentralization goal Government has been embarking on. Bulunga noted that for Government to continue to deliver programs and solutions that will make a meaningful impact on the lives of Emaswati, we need to upscale the engagement.