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LIVING THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF COVID-19; ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES FOR CHILDREN’ GAONE KATLHOLO’S STORY IN BOTSWANA

The 15 years old Gaone narrates her story as follows

‘Nearly 2 months ago, I began to feel ill, I would frequently find myself exhausted and brought to a state of breathlessness. I could hardly make up in the morning for school, however I had to put on a straight face and as before, continued with school. I had always hated asking for help and didn’t want to be a nuisance to anyone. I gathered up the courage to finally open up about my current state. I approached my uncle with whom I lived with. He, however, unintentionally turned a blind eye and concluded that I was probably just imagining it because I hate school. I smiled half-heartedly, not convinced by his argument. Some days later, one particular morning, I arrived at school with a heavy beating in my chest that left me unable to breathe and exhausted, hardly unable to walk.

One of my school mates had forgotten to take her high blood pills, again I smiled half-heartedly as I didn’t want to be a kid who suddenly fell ill because someone else did. I didn’t want to be seen as an opportunist. Arriving in class, I dragged myself towards my seat. My situation is only worsening. I began to lose breath, almost completely unable to breathe with the mask on my face not easing the situation. I then told the class teacher in class and rushed home a few hours later. The school demanded that I go for testing before returning to school. My uncle took me to a clinic in Maseru. Though we arrived at the blink of dawn, a swarm of people were already lined up by the entrance gate.

There was not authoritative figure to control the entrance and exit. A man who himself had come to test had begun writing down a list of people. We waited in line the whole day, until sunset drew near and at last, I was finally able to get tested. Much to my surprise, there were only 3 doctors in the whole clinic, seemingly also attending to a patient with only one of the doctors conducting tests. He demanded we call him after 5 days and to this day I still haven’t got the results.’

She concludes by saying experiences like this traumatize them as children – firstly by sharing with parents or guardians about their health scares to informing teachers at school and to the health facility itself.

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