Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - December 20, 2003
Paul Busharizi

An AIDS orphan catapulted into maturity by loss and illness, he shared some of his knowledge with a U.S. delegation, led by Health Secretary Tommy Thompson, when it recently toured his native Uganda to find out more about AIDS.

"In order to avoid AIDS we should do three things," Joseph told them, peering out from under a yellow paper sun visor.

"Abstain from sex, avoid bad friends and be strong when we lose our loved ones."

Uganda has used its ABC anti-AIDS slogan for years, with considerable success. A is for Abstinence, B for Being faithful to one's partner, C for using Condoms.

Now it has adapted that formula in a new drive to target pre-teens, hoping to inform an age group that will soon be at high risk of contracting the disease that had killed an estimated 947,952 Ugandans by December 2001.

For pre-adolescents, A is Abstain, B avoid Bad friends and C Courage in times of loss.

The strategy known as PIASCY (Presidential Initiative on AIDS strategy for Communication to Youth) was launched last year, as the government realized the need to target children before it was too late.

Joseph, a primary school student who lost his father three years ago and his mother last November, is a pioneer in the new program.

"The youth are the most vulnerable and we have to keep renewing the message to keep their attention and more importantly harness peer influence to help in the war," Health Minister Jim Muhwezi told Reuters.

"Children, if given a mission or message can be single-minded champions and in this case, can also influence their parents."

OPEN DEBATE

Open discussion of the issues at stake is at the heart of the new program, which seeks to inform youngsters about the disease and how to avoid getting it.

Every primary school now has a mandatory fortnightly assembly where children discuss HIV/AIDS, how the disease is transmitted, respect between boys and girls and discouraging heavy petting.

Muhwezi said there was an initial resistance to teaching young children about sex and AIDS.

"At first parents complained about it but we told them we are teaching AIDS prevention and not sex education and they relaxed," he said. "But the truth is can you teach one without the other?"

The minister likened the battle against AIDS to the experiences of the guerrilla bush war which brought current President Yoweri Museveni to power in 1986. During the war, Museveni and his rebels used children as active fighters.

"When we were in the bush we had to survive and win against superior forces," he said. "With AIDS we find ourselves in the same situation with little resources and a deadly and powerful enemy."

GOLD STANDARD

The Uganda AIDS commission says there are two million AIDS orphans in Uganda today. Official figures show that 1,050,555 people in the country are living with HIV.

Uganda was once considered one of the epicenters of the disease. But a determined and courageous government campaign saw prevalence rates drop considerably in the past decade -- official figures suggest six percent of Uganda's 26.5 million people are now infected, compared to 30 percent in the 1980s.

That compares to other countries on the continent that have been less successful, such as South Africa where five million or 11 percent out of a population of 45 million are infected.

While neighboring countries like Kenya are beginning to openly confront the realities of HIV/AIDS, they lag far behind Uganda which has already gone some way to fighting the stigma and forcing normally taboo subjects into the public arena.

"We have come to learn what your country has put in place to fight this war," Randall Tobias, Coordinator for the U.S. Global Fund on AIDS and a member of Thompson's delegation, said after watching pupils at Joseph's school perform AIDS-related shows.

"This new initiative is something we can learn from. Uganda is the gold standard in the world of having figured out how to help yourselves against this terrible disease."

Tobias and his fellow delegates visited four African countries to try and raise AIDS awareness and to launch a program to encourage big business to fund the battle against AIDS in the developing world.

The Global Fund he works for was set up in 2001 as a kind of international war chest against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which combined kill nearly six million people each year, mostly in poor countries.

In Uganda, despite past successes, it is clear there is still a long way to go. Muhwezi said the government was prepared to try anything in its bid to beat the disease.

"This war is winnable if everyone is on board," he said. "No one will fight it for us, they can only help us. There is no choice: we win or we die."

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