The First lady Mama Salma Kikwete has said that teachers in the country could play effective role in disseminating proper information that would protect pupils and students from HIV infection.
The First lady said this when she was opening a special Anti-AIDS seminar for 100 teachers from all districts in Mtwara region on Monday morning held at Mtwara Teachers Training college. The Five Days seminar has been organized by Wanawake na Maendeleo Foundation WAMA in collaboration with TACAIDS.
“Teachers spend more time with pupils and students more than parents do and are better equipped to educate them on how they can avoid contracting the deadly HIV virus using various techniques”, she said.
Mama Kikwete said a better informed student can effectively avoid occasions and temptations that would lead them towards casual sex hence protecting themselves against contracting the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The First Lady further said that the seminar was part of the campaign she launched last year to protect Tanzanian youths against AIDS with a slogan that goes” The child of your neighbor is yours protect them against AIDS”.
She also expressed her worries over the increasing number of primary school pupils who get pregnant in Mtwara region saying that in 2005, 415 pupils got pregnant and in the following year 529 pupils got pregnant adding that the situation was alarming and in need of urgent action to curb the trend.
“When a pupil get pregnant means that it was involved in unprotected sex that could make it contract HIV infection. I urge teachers attending this seminar and others throughout the country to collaborate with law enforcing organs to help bring the culprits before the law,” she said.
Speaking during the same occasion Mtwara Regional Education Officer Mr. Wahab Issae thanked Mama Kikwete saying that the seminar came at an opportune moment to equip the teachers with new strategies to educate the pupils and community in general on how to combat HIV/AIDS effectively.
The Participants thanked the First Lady and pledged to work hard to protect the pupils against the pandemic that has claimed the lives of many youths in the country.
Tanzania,
is a country on the east coast of east Africa. 
