AfricaVox 2007

Uganda strives for a generation free from HIV

Kakaire Kirunda thinks the only way to stop the spread of HIV among teenagers is to treat them like adults.

Against a soothing instrumental background, a group of female friends discuss the hazards of sugar daddies on a popular Ugandan radio show:

Mary: Let me tell you about this friend of mine. A few months ago she told me mbu [that] she met this nice guy with a lot of money. Yes he was married but he treated her like a queen, took her to all the nice clubs, and bought her a really cool phone. Even the expensive clothes, he bought. Now yesterday she came to me crying, her world is falling a part. She has just found out that she is pregnant.

Kate: And the nice man?

Mary: He is not interested. He is tired of her. But that is not the worst part; she is also infected with HIV.

Kate: Girls! The gifts, the nights out, the cash, can never be worth your life and future. Older men are taking advantage of you and putting you at risk of HIV infection in exchange for these bu [small] things. This practice is called cross-generational sex. Respect yourselves, do what I do. Say no to sugar daddies…

Uganda wants an HIV-free generation and, to help to achieve this, the government has begun an onslaught against so-called cross-generational sex. The practice is defined as young people, especially girls, entering into sexual relationships with people who are more than ten years older.

Catchy as it is, I believe this media campaign is in danger of overlooking an inconvenient truth – young people are not contracting HIV simply because they have sex with older people, they are also at risk of transmitting HIV to one another.

Hard labour: stopping HIV in its tracks

Collins Vumiria discovers why Uganda’s traditional birth attendants are being sidelined in the fight against HIV.

Earlier this month I asked Uganda’s minister of state in charge of primary health care, Dr Emmanuel Otaala, why traditional birth attendants – who deliver tens of thousands of babies each year – seem to play little part in HIV awareness and prevention or in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

It had been on my mind since I met an experienced traditional birth attendant (TBA) who told me she last attended a workshop on HIV counselling in 1992. Hasifa Nalwoga Ssenkayo is 52 years old and with two years of schooling behind her has been working as a birth attendant since 1976.

A mother of ten, Hasifa’s workplace has 14 make-shift beds. She operates in a crude environment where everything is improvised. She knows something about HIV and advises women to go for HIV tests after she delivers their babies. But from her answers to some of my questions it was clear she was confused about how the virus could be diagnosed and would benefit from more training.

In fact Hasifa had asked for just that. She told me she had been to the nearest general hospital looking for collaboration with the medical team to improve her services “but failed to get through”.

What news do I take home for my people?

Collins Vumiria

As far as I can tell, everyone who's attended the G8 Summit here in Heiligendamm leaves it with mixed feelings. Some are bitter that the G8’s announcement of $60 billion to fight disease failed to mention when it would arrive. Others complain that the Gleneagles promises have yet to be fulfilled.

But out of all this, what do I have to tell my people back home in Uganda when I return?

To get a steer, this afternoon I rushed down to a news conference given by two musicians who for years have been campaigning to rid Africa of poverty and disease: Bob Geldof and U2’s Bono.

I find Geldof describing the Summit as a total mess. “I do not want to see 2005 reiterated endlessly,” he tells the assembled journalists. “The richest countries of the world, trillions of dollars, swirling around that table… do me a favour! Get serious guys! This wasn’t serious. This was a farce. This was a total farce.”

All very well, I think to myself. But I need specific information for my own people, not just these soundbites. I had hoped for something more constructive to communicate to my people in Mbarara than this emotional dismissal.

Next it’s question time for the journalists. “My name is Collins Vumiria, I am a journalist from Uganda.” Faces turn to look at me. “After this summit, what news do I take home for my people?”

Referring to the title of the final document released at the close of the Summit, ‘Growth and responsibility in the world economy’, Geldof says:

“Conserving growth and responsibility in Africa? It’s absolutely sickening cynicism for this weekend. I am sick to my heart.” 

So do I take this back to Radio West? Hmmm. It sounds a little downbeat.

Kumi Naidoo

But another contribution comes in from Kumi Naidoo, the chairman of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. He tells me:

“Ugandans and all Africans need to know that we have a responsibility to hold our leaders back home accountable. Whatever monies have been put on our table, African civil society need to mobilise to ensure that [it] is delivered to the people in need… in terms of anti-corruption, human rights, gender and other aspects.”

I think to myself: this sounds like something my people will want to take on. I just hope they do.

‘Green’ fuel must not destroy Africa’s forests

Richard M Kavuma

It’s the final day of the Summit, and so far we’ve heard the G8 leaders’ views on climate change and HIV funding. Richard M Kavuma hopes that in their quest for ‘alternative energy sources’ the G8 does not jeopardise Africa’s remaining forests.

Yesterday's communiqué on climate change talks about the critical issue of deforestation, saying:

“Reducing, and in the long term halting deforestation provides a significant and cost-effective contribution toward mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and toward conserving biological diversity, promoting sustainable forest management and enhancing security of livelihoods.”

This will perhaps irritate Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who has demonstrated a disturbing readiness to give away natural forests to private investors to develop sugar and oil palm plantations.

In another paragraph – this time on diversification of the world’s energy sources – the G8 leaders say they will promote biofuels as an alternative source of energy. But in Uganda there has already been evidence of the potential for conflict between these two aims.

In March and April this year Uganda witnessed the most passionate, non-partisan outpouring of public opinion against Mr Museveni in his 21 years in power when he sought to give away a quarter of the country’s most abundant natural forest to a sugar company.

AIDS prevention paying the price of the G8 donor circus

Kaikare Kirunda

G8 negotiators have spent much of the week in disagreement over a range of issues – including the commitment made two years ago at Gleneagles to increasing aid to Africa. As the Summit opened today, the prospects for Africa weren’t looking bright.

Perhaps that’s unsurprising. It’s well known that aid has actually gone down in real terms, once debt relief is taken out of the equation. In fact aid agency Oxfam says, going by the present trends, the G8 could miss its 2010 target by $30 billion.

As the rows continue at the Summit, Germany too has been accused of only being interested in pushing its own model of social health insurance while apparently ignoring Africa’s own health strategy.

That all this is happening when some of the G8 countries – especially the US and Germany – made important aid increment announcements prior to the Summit is mind-boggling.

But what's happening here reflects the confusion these countries exhibit in their aid programmes for Africa and the rest of the developing world. More importantly these conflicts have damaging consequences on the ground.

Uganda's debts cancelled but health workers "don't see the change"

Esther Aikoru has been a health professional in Uganda for 15 years, but has barely a dollar in the bank.

Although healthcare systems are high on this year's G8 agenda, health experts such as Médecins Sans Frontières have slammed donors for failing to fund increases in health workers' salaries.

Esther told Collins Vumiria that she would like to see things change now that Uganda's debts have been written off.

Being truly educated goes beyond writing your name

Collins Vumiria

Uganda is one of the ‘highly indebted countries’ that had its debts cancelled after the Gleneagles G8 summit of 2005. It recently stepped up school spending - introducing free secondary education – but the future is looking doubtful.

Laden with empty food containers in which he carried his packed lunch and breaktime snacks, eight-year-old Phillip Tasiku plays with his friends as they return home from Kitante Primary School in Uganda’s capital Kampala.

Even though Phillip’s tuition is now funded by the government, his mother Esther has to pay 30,000 Ugandan shillings (around $18) in extra charges each term as well as provide Phillip’s food. 

Universal education in Uganda has been described by many, including President Yoweri Museveni, as a success. Uganda now boasts an extra 1.5 million pupils in primary school since the programme was introduced.

The politicians say: “We now look to a future where at least every Ugandan will be able to write down their names and read a signpost”. They tell us that free education – especially for poorer people – means that Uganda is to become a country of the enlightened. But wait a second...!

The DDT debate: to spray or not to spray?

Collins Vumiria

Kakaire's blog - It all started with a severe headache – got me thinking about malaria, about DDT, and about the potential for conflict between environmental concerns and health.

Uganda is rightly worried about the tens of thousands of its citizens thought to die of malaria each year. So is the World Health Organisation (WHO). Perhaps that’s why after years of banning the anti-malarial DDT, the WHO now says it’s safe.

In February I attended a summit of health ministers from the East African community. One of the issues discussed was the residual spraying of DDT in homes to do away with malaria-spreading mosquitoes.

Tanzania's health minister said his country would embark on a nationwide programme of spraying after successfully ridding the island of Zanzibar of malaria. Other countries are following suit, with Uganda planning to start in the next couple of months.

Despite this, the controversy surrounding this chemical isn’t over yet. Several Ugandan environmental activists have detailed its dangers. And reports on the internet are mixed.

But there are other concerns too…

Anti-corruption efforts just a ‘donor-inspired drama’

It’s been a day of protest: in Germany, anti-G8 protestors clashed with police; meanwhile London saw demonstrators saying ‘the world can’t wait’ for an end to poverty. Campaigners resent the ‘self-appointed informal world government’ of the G8, which uses aid and financial muscle to police the leaders of other countries. But Richard M Kavuma says the aid conditions set by the G8 are doing little to stop corruption.

Interesting times we’re living through in Uganda. Only last month, two men who were previously ministers in President Museveni’s government had a taste of life in the country’s Luzira prison. 

These ex-ministers and a niece of first lady Janet Museveni have allegedly ‘mismanaged’ a fund worth nearly $5 million intended for the immunisation of Uganda’s children against killer diseases.

After netting such big fish, the President might have expected the whole population to applaud him. Instead the cynics are having a field day. One reason is that people simply don’t believe that Museveni is serious on corruption.

Instead of distancing themselves from the accused in this current case, members of the President’s party, his cabinet, and even members of his family have visited the accused in jail. Others held parties to celebrate their release on bail.

It is rumoured that Museveni only okayed action against his cronies to appease the donors, who can withhold their critically needed aid unless Uganda is seen to tackle corruption.

I’m not giving any credence to this latest anti-corruption probe until one or two of the accused are actually convicted and locked away. Short of that, it feels like yet another round of donor-inspired drama.