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Articles on HIV/AIDS issues
with a focus on women and the girl-child in Uganda
Created in May 2003, in collaboration with Gloria Katusiime, Institute of Public Health and Center for Disease Control (IPH/CDC) Fellow,Kampala, this section will feature articles addressing HIV/AIDS with a focus on women and the girl-child in Uganda. For information on how to contribute an article to this section, contact info@wougnet.org.
Articles on HIV/AIDS issues
Hope Clinic Lukuli begins new TREAT service. September 8, 2006Beginning on 13th September 2006, The Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) will begin a new TREAT service at Hope Clinic Lukuli in Makindye Division. The TREAT services are recognised as a leading provider of high quality ART services, thereby ensuring that people with AIDS live longer, healthier and more productive lives. Hope Clinic Lukuli is a philanthropic health NGO with over six years experience of coordination with the Kampala City Council and Ministry of Health as well as with national programs supported by PEPFAR and other partners. The clinic has been providing free counseling and testing services, both VCT and PMTCT for two years and administers PMTCT drugs to mothers and newly born children. It has been accredited by Dr Zaramba in April 2006 as a Hive Treatment Centre. The JCRC support will follow a variety of methods including for example free drugs for orphans, vulnerable children and women as well as cost recovery drugs and subsidized laboratory tests for adult patients.
As part of the collaborative agreement, Hope Clinic Lukuli will encourage women in their own right and as caretakers of OVCs to access VCT and when in need of ARVs they will be referred to the JCRC ART site in Mengo. Hope Clinic Lukuli will provide free counseling services and share ART information with the communities, provide follow up support for those on ART to ensure adherence and where possible, provide nutritional support and food supplements to those on ART.
More information on this work can be found at www.hcluganda.org and at www.jcrc.co.ug. Hope Clinic Lukuli is open to all people regardless of faith or status and is philanthropic in purpose.
The AIDS-controversies in Uganda further analysed. Share-Net. December 2005 (PDF document)
In December 2005, Share-Net carried out a mission to Uganda. The initial reason for this assignment was linked to the current debate in Uganda around the issues of abstinence and faithfulness. The debate seemed to coincide with an influx of American support, mainly channelled through religious organizations. In addition, in 2005 a severe scarcity of condoms was felt in the country. Is there a shift in approach to fight HIV/AIDS in a country once known for its effective strategies to decrease the HIV prevalence? If so, what will be its impact? It sounded as if Uganda was becoming a case where Share-Net’s principles were increasingly coming under pressure. In order to contribute to current discussions within Share-net, it was proposed the Share-Net AIDS-coordinator undertake a mission to Uganda to get a better insight in the following aspects:
- To better understand the controversies surrounding HIV/AIDS in Uganda;
- To identify influential actors and factors in the current HIV and AIDS policy and implementation;
- To get more insight into the approaches used in the (integrated) civil society response to HIV/AIDS and SRH;
- To gain insight into the manner in which vertical financial mechanisms influence health systems support.
Who Cares for the Care-Givers? Respond to Women’s Voices and Cry for Support. Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, Regional Program Director, UNIFEM East and Horn of Africa. December 1, 2004 (WORD document)
The world celebrates International World AIDS Day, with the appropriate theme “Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS”. The vulnerability and risk of women and girls to infection, the horrifying statistics of the increasing orphan care issues; the daily cry of greater access to health care, treatment and nutrition for people living with HIV & AIDS are the main stories of the day. What is rarely seen, said and adequately responded to are the needs and rights of the care givers? With what resources do these mostly elderly women and girls provide support and care to the infected and affected family members and friends? Where do they derive their daily strength to nurture, to love and to support our sick and dying? What nourishes their spirit as they wake up everyday and respond to the call to serve humanity? Who actually cares for the care-givers?
Women, HIV & AIDS and Abject Poverty: Extra-Ordinary Measures Called for to Harness the HIV & AIDS Catastrophe in Africa. Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, Regional Program Director, UNIFEM East and Horn of Africa. July 11, 2004
It was not an easy feat for Mrs. Nane Annan and all of us to negotiate our way in Kiambiu slums of Kenya while visiting an outreach initiative of women living with HIV & AIDS supported by Kenya Network of Women Living with AIDS (KENWA). We had to almost walk in almost single file as there was no road, and now and again jumped over running dirty water flowing easily between the muddy huts. We were visiting a family infected and affected by HIV & AIDS.
Women Significant victims in HIV/AIDS Epidemic! Gloria Katusiime. October 8, 2003
A new HIV/AIDS Epidemiological surveillance update for the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa is confirming that there are many more women infected with HIV/AIDS than men and that this gender difference is even larger among young people.
The report was released at the XIII International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa that was held in Nairobi from 21-26th September.
Do Microbicides hold the answer to many women’s dilemmas?
Adopted and edited from Pamoja News. Gloria Katusiime. October 8, 2003
‘If scientists have made a spaceship, why have they not developed a substance that is female controlled that can protect women from the HIV virus? The question posed by a Ugandan delegate echoed the frustrations of millions of women desperate for access to female controlled methods.
Domestic violence intensifying spread of HIV in Uganda. Gloria Katusiime. August 13, 2003
In a report released by the Human Rights watch, thousands of Ugandan women are becoming infected with HIV and will eventually die of AIDS because the government is failing to protect them from domestic violence. The report reveals that women whose husbands rape or physically attack them are unable to protect themselves from infection or get access to HIV/AIDS services. The government of Uganda was also blamed for failing to criminalize or prosecute violence against women in the home thus contributing to Uganda women's vulnerability to HIV infection.
Report on Regional Conference on Leadership Challenges for African Women in the Campaign Against HIV/AIDS. Hadijah Namumbya, WOUGNET Information Officer. July 2003
The regional conference was organised by African Leadership Forum in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Action Aid (Africa), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and National Action Committee on HIV/AIDS (NACA). The conference was organised to elaborate on the need to expand the space of engagement of women within the policy framework being used to fight against HIV/AIDS and also to develop strategies that will assist women across the continent to adequately respond to the leadership needs required in curbing the pandemic. Click here to download a copy of the report (WORD format) which includes a listing of the key issues noted, the recommendations, and the plan of action. Hadijah's participation at the Regional Conference was generously sponsored
by the African Leadership Forum (ALF).
Advocacy campaign on microbicides to begin. Gloria Katusiime. June 21, 2003
A campaign on the development of safe and affordable microbicides is set to begin in Uganda. This will be the first time that a large-scale campaign on microbicides is launched after years of ongoing research about the efficacy of this product. Microbicides are agents that kill or deactivate disease causing microorganisms, technically known as pathogens and are supposedly developed to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in women.
Reach out Mbuya HIV/AIDS initiative. Gloria Katusiime. June 17, 2003
Three women decided that they could do more for the communities they were living in by sharing the word of God to their neighbors. After several home visits, they discovered that the majority of the people they visited had no food, were bed ridden and suffering from HIV and its related complications. The three of them decided that they would pull their meager resources together to help these people most of whom could not afford even the basics like food and treatment drugs. Today an HIV community initiative called 'Reach out Mbuya HIV/AIDS initiative' has been started.
People Living With HIV in dire need of Legal forum. Gloria Katusiime. May 22, 2003
The Equal opportunities Commission has been asked by development partners to include and give prominence to People living with HIV/AIDS, as a special vulnerable group with special needs and focus. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) was set up under the auspices of the (1995) Uganda constitution to provide enabling laws and create opportunities for disadvantaged and marginalized people to participate in decision-making policies and development programs that affect their lives.
Report shows Uganda Girl Child commercial sexual exploitation on the increase. Gloria Katusiime. May 15, 2003
In a report that was recently released by Women and Youth Services, females are accounting for 97% of children most hit by commercial sexual exploitation along truck driver stop over towns.
Truck drivers stop over towns of Idudi, Naluwerere, Lukaya and Ntungamo town council were studied to estimate the nature and magnitude of commercial sexual exploitation in Uganda, identify the categories of children most affected, examine the social economic dynamics leading children into sex business, identify the perpetrators and explore scope of interventions.
Why ICTs and Why for Women? Gloria Katusiime. May 15, 2003
Why ICTs and Why for women was the underlying concept behind a workshop for Women communicators from five countries in Africa that met for a week in Kampala to study the use of information and communication technologies for the reporting of HIV/AIDS.
UNESCO and SciDev.Net with an objective of equipping women journalists produce timely and accurate reports; news stories and features about HIV/AIDS research organised the workshop.
Last update: October-6, 2006