The Reality of AIDS - Part 15 - Uganda Model Fails Elsewhere

Wouldn’t it make sense that if one country had figured out a way to decrease the new incidence of AIDS from 36% to 6% that other countries wouldn’t adopt the same strategy? Unfortunately, and maddeningly, this has not yet happened. I wanted to know why, so I asked people who had tried to make it happen.

Oliniye Darimola, born in Nigeria, is the African Regional Director for Scripture Union based in Nairobi, Kenya. Sitting on the tree-shaded shaded terrace at the Namirembe Guest House over tea, I asked the Director this question. “Uganda has several things going for it that are simply not present elsewhere,” he said. “First, the presence of AIDS was highlighted here early; the leadership did not hide from it. There is a strong faith community – Scripture Union is strong here with a school system where preachers and evangelists are welcome to visit and enlighten children. Where Scripture Union has a presence –Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi – we teach the same message – abstinence and being faithful, but in these places, faith issues do not make the moral message as strong as in Uganda.  Also in these places, there is not the strong leadership as was here in Uganda. And AIDS rages on.

With the strength of the Catholic Church in Africa and its emphasis on experience sharing through regional conferences, I asked Fr. Obunga in 2005 how he thought the Uganda Model could be spread to the rest of Africa. He said, “We had an Africa-wide conference in South Africa in 1999. By then, the disease had killed millions of people. Many of the representatives there thought the Americans were going to come in and solve the problem medically. They are still waiting. And people are still dying. I guess I don’t have a good answer to the question except to keep meeting and keep talking.” 

In September of 2007, Bishop Hugh Slattery of the South African Diocese of Tzaneen spoke about the current state of AIDS prevention through pro-life Population Research Institute’s Weekly Briefing. He related that a program called Education for Life developed by a Ugandan nun in the early 1980s really started the public awareness process there educating people about the dangers of promiscuous sex and its deadly consequences.  “The adult HIV rate in South Africa was 18.8% at the end of 2005, or about what it was in Uganda 15 years ago,” he said.  “Finally, the Education for Life program has now been introduced in this diocese and is spreading throughout South Africa.”

Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Orombi said, “Not all of the countries in Africa were very serious to begin with. In Malawi, it was not easy for churches to speak out. Other places like South Africa did not accept that AIDS should be something to talk about because culturally, there are a lot of taboos associated with sex. Kenya didn’t want rumors of disease to hurt its tourist trade. Our position was not embraced by everybody but people are beginning to realize that where we are standing is about the safest way we can address AIDS as a church.

“In the context of the continent, I think in the last few years, we have not begun to speak about AIDS per se but in 2000 I was in Cape Town and the church there was asking me if they could come to Uganda and learn from what we have learned. I said Yeah, Man. Give us an opportunity and we can show you. That was recognition of needing some help. I never heard what happened.”

The sad reality is, without strong national leadership voicing the belief that AB can slow the disease – supported by the church with its moral compass - as demonstrated in Uganda, entire populations throughout Africa must depend on condoms to slow the spread of the disease and on ARVs to keep infected people alive. In this scenario, the cycle of death will never end.