Greetings! Welcome to the October 2017 issue of the ACHAP News. This issue highlights the organization’s latest update on the success stories of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) in Botswana, through the “#PROUDLYCIRCUMCISED” demand creation campaign. The campaign strategy has been  developed to convince men to get VMMC services, while encouraging women to support their men to get circumcised and for both men and their partners to adhere to post-circumcision practices that promote healing.

#PROUDLYCIRCUMCISED a unique and provocative approach shall convince men to act. It speaks to men through the success stories or testimonies of other men that have already undergone the procedure.

AMOS RAMADILA FROM MOCHUDI #PROUDLYCIRCUMCISED

The first time I saw someone who had safely circumcised was my friend and it looked painful as he had a bandage on. On that day I had sworn that I will never do VMMC, it really scared me. After some months my friend came to my house and showed me that his penis had healed well and I must admit, it looked nice and clean but still that was not enough to change my mind about it. I did not want to do it at all.

One day my colleague and I were going to get a haircut and as we drove to the hair salon we saw a mobile truck at an open space along the road in Mogoditsane where there were  musical performances so we decided to join the crowd. We found out that it was a circumcision campaign that had pulled the crowd.  My colleague then decided that we at least do an HIV test which we did and that’s when we were encouraged by one ACHAP employee to consider doing VMMC.

As my colleague agreed on it I opted out. My friend then went inside the mobile truck for the operation and as he went in I had a long talk with the ACHAP staff  called Malebogo. This young lady really put some sense into me as she explained that being uncircumcised puts me at risk of infections and that a foreskin creates the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive and for viruses to hide out whereas VMMC completely removes that environment.

I started to have a change of heart but told her I will assess the situation from my colleague after his operation, when my colleague alighted from the truck I was like “Swaarr go jwang daa? Ke batla go tsena” which translates; “my brother, how did it go in there, I also want to go in”. He assured me that everything will go well and that he felt no pain. I went into the mobile truck and nurses counselled me and explained everything about the procedure.

There were two types of SMC methods at the time, which is the Prepex where a ring is placed on your penis for some days to help remove the foreskin and the surgical method which uses the anaesthetic injection to help ease the pain before the foreskin is removed. Due to my phobia for needles I decided on the Prepex method. You will be surprised to know that as soon as they placed the Prepex device onto my penis, I felt so uncomfortable and asked for it to be removed. I then went ahead with the surgical procedure. The procedure went well and my wound healed so quick that in a few days I was feeling great.

I know that this is not something a lot of men are comfortable with and they have fears about it but I advise men to do it especially for hygiene purposes. Being clean is very important for sexual relationships and circumcision helps men a lot with that. It really is a significant hygiene bonus for men and women are much more comfortable when a man is circumcised. Right now I maintain good hygiene, I’m in a good relationship and we are both happy and healthy and enjoy each other.  I can now say I am proudly circumcised!