UGANDA: Marching for abstinence

Kampala, 3 November 2006 (PlusNews) - Thousands of Ugandans marched through Kampala recently to promote the message that 'Abstinence Pride' is central to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Last week's event, which culminated in a reggae concert, was organised by a coalition of born-again Christian groups who believe anti-AIDS messages are encouraging amoral and permissive behaviour.

Students and school pupils were bused in from across the country with the support of Uganda's First Lady Janet Museveni, an outspoken supporter of abstinence. They waved placards calling for young people to save sex until after marriage.

Charismatic preacher and leader of the Global AIDS Prevention Initiative, Pastor Martin Ssempa attacked international donor agencies for promoting condom use and called for the emphasis to shift to abstinence and faithfulness. "We feel that the United Nations has failed us in many ways," he said. "When do they have marriage or abstinence as a World AIDS Day theme?"

"When young people are abstaining they are under tremendous pressure from friends. They are called names, shamed and stigmatized," he added. "It's very hard to find anyone who is abstaining in the newspapers and the media, but we want to show that we are here."

Student, Asiimwez Ziton John Bosco, said he had started abstaining from sex five years ago, primarily for health reasons. "It's the only way to know you are 100 percent safe from HIV. Of course, there are challenges, but it's rewarding. I don't have any worries in my mind. If you are promiscuous then you don't have a tomorrow."

Bosco warned against NGOs trying to combat HIV by distributing condoms. "When you give a condom to a young person its like saying 'go and have sex.'"

The early championing of the ABC (Standing for Abstinence, Be faithful and Condomise) prevention approach in Uganda by President Yoweri Museveni’s administration in the early 1990s has been widely credited with reducing the country’s HIV prevalence from over 20 percent to its current rate of 6.7 percent.

But under the perceived influence of the United States and the evangelical church, the government has been criticised for shifting the emphasis of its fight against the pandemic to favour abstinence over condom use.

Theme (s): Prevention - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]