Important note: Information in this article was accurate in November 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.afrol.com, 8 December - The President of a country that is constantly hailed as an African success story in combating HIV/AIDS treated delegates to the African Development Forum 2000 in Addis Ababa to a journey over the years, spiced with a down to earth commentary on how events unfolded and the reason behind the leadership decisions that he took.
Among the listeners on the Forum were Festus Mogae, President of the country which now has taken over Uganda's former role as the country with the highest incidence of AIDS - Botswana. Other listeners included Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Malawian Vice President Justin Malewezi and the Senegalese Prime Minister Mr. Mustapha.
Ugandan President Museveni started by referring to the alarming statistics, particularly the high numbers in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 1993 1.5 million Ugandans had been affected, Today, 2 million are infected. Out of the numbers in 1993, 800,000 have died and left 1.7 million orphans. At the time, the infection rates in Uganda were the highest in the world and decisive action was called for.
At the beginning, in 1984, he thought AIDS had nothing to do with his country as it was presented as a disease for homosexuals and drug addicts. But the reality of heterosexual transmission meant that Uganda was at high risk. In traditional cultures, sex was treated as a taboo subject and young people engaging in sex were severely punished. The relaxing of traditional mores led to sexual freedom and a vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases. A second danger was the discovery of antibiotics (penicillin) making people not to take sexually transmitted diseases seriously.
In finding ways to address the issue, he drew inspiration from tradition. "When a lion comes into your village, you must raise the alarm loudly." This is what we did in Uganda; we took it seriously and we achieved good results. AIDS is not such a serious problem; it is not like small pox or ebola. AIDS can be prevented as it is transmitted through a few known ways. If we raise awareness sufficiently, it will stop.
Therefore we should be able to preach to people about the simple ways to prevent AIDS and we should be able to prevent it. How do you preach? At the beginning, we used advertisements after the TV news. Our ad quietly told people to "Love carefully". But TV was accessible to only a few people. This was a silent alarm. We learned that the best channel for making an alarm are the political leaders. Political rallies are the place to pass on the message (at all levels). Churches and mosques are another crucial avenue for raising awareness. Schools were also asked to pass on the message, once a week during assemblies.
Radio was also used to pass on the message, guaranteeing that almost everyone was reached. The language used and the timing is crucial. It must be in the vernacular, clearly expressed and at a time when people are listening.
The AIDS awareness message was also facilitated by the deliberate empowerment of women as part of the democratization process. Women’s empowerment was achieved by putting women at the highest level of leadership (ministers); Uganda's Vice President is a woman. This was aimed at breaking the psychological barrier and giving women confidence. It sent a message that girls are not useless. It had an impact on AIDS empowerment; we know that women need to be empowered before they can assert themselves in a sexual relationship.
Museveni listed the following positive results as a result of these measures:
- I have become a small doctor myself. I know so much about this! he said. Museveni proceeded to give a medical lecture on the effects of AIDS and the effects of Anti-viral drugs .
- African countries need to collaborate in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, he said. Uganda introduced a policy of non-discrimination of people with AIDS. To combat poverty, Uganda has introduced free education to ease the burden of poor families, especially where AIDS has had an impact on breadwinners in the family.
President Museveni stressed that as AIDS has become an ‘African’ disease, we, as African leaders, must take the lead in finding resources and negotiating with drug companies to lower prices.
Asked by a representative of the Youth Focus Group on how the leaders could justify waging wars in the mist of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (of the 17 countries most affected by AIDS, 13 are engaged in conflict), President Museveni, his country being deeply involved in the Congo conflict, answered that he believed there was some misplaced idealism in the questioning of war and that one must distinguish between justifiable (life saving) wars and criminal wars. He ended his statement by saying, "Don't listen to uninformed preachers who tell you to sleep when you should be awake."
Source: Based on Economic Commission for Africa
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