Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 31, 2005
Bushwacked: A senior United Nations official has accused President George W Bush of "doing damage to Africa" by cutting funding for condoms, a move that may jeopardise the success-ful fight against HIV/Aids in Uganda.
Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, said US cuts in funding for condoms, and an emphasis on promoting abstinence, had contributed to a shortage of condoms in Uganda, one of the few African countries that has succeeded in reducing its infection rate. In 2003, Bush declared he would spend $15-billion on his emergency plan for Aids relief, but receiving aid under the programme has moral strings attached.
Recipient countries have to emphasise abstinence over condoms, and -- under a congressional amendment -- they must condemn prostitution.
Brazil announced last month that it would refuse to accept $40-million in US aid rather than stigmatise prostitutes, who, Brazilian health workers said, were essential to their anti-Aids strategy. Senegal was also cut off from US aid because prostitution is legal there.
Campaigners accuse Uganda's first lady, Janet Museveni, of being instrumental in the switch towards a policy of abstinence. In one poster campaign, signed by the office of the first lady, the slogan alongside the picture of a smiling young woman says: "She's saving herself for marriage -- how about you?"
While Uganda needs between 120-million and 150-million condoms a year, only 32-million have been distributed since last October. The Health Minister, Jim Muhwezi, denied there was a policy change on condoms. "She [Museveni] cannot tell young people to use condoms, she is a mother," he said.
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