More than one in five Botswana adolescents have thought of committing suicide and about one in five actually follow through on their thought, making Botswana one of the suicide capitals of the world. A report by UNICEF paints a sobering picture on the future of Botswana’s younger generation revealing that “Botswana has one of the highest suicide rates in the world (19 per every 100,000).”
The report states: “Mental services are not widely available, less so for adolescents who often lack youth-friendly services.” The report entitled “Update on the context and situation of children” also found that: “Approximately 22 per cent of adolescents have thought of suicide and 19 per cent attempted it in the last 12 months.” The United Nations agency which is responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide revealed that it was working with CSOs to train healthcare workers in the provision of psychosocial support services, but more investments are required. Noting that after achieving 11.4 percent growth in 2021, Botswana’s economy expanded by 4.3 percent in 2022, the report said: “However, the latest economic growth projections indicate that the current path is insufficient to meet the policy targets of Vision 2036.”
There's more to this story
But to keep reading, we need you to subscribe.
Investigative journalism is an indispensable part of a healthy society, but it's also expensive to produce. We are reliant on subscriptions to fund our work, and while you can enjoy most of our stories for free, a small number of premium features are reserved for subscribers.
You can subscribe for one week, a month or a full year - the choice is yours.
Save 77% on an annual subscription. Click here to find out how.
Existing subscribers can log in to keep reading here.