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US gives Uganda $15m for Aids
15/09/2006 08:45 - (SA)
Kampala - The United States has given $15m to a coalition of five Ugandan religious groups that advocate faith-based approaches in fighting the deadly Aids virus.
The donation came as some health groups had complained that the US pressure on Uganda to push abstinence over condom use was threatening the east African country's highly successful anti-HIV/Aids programme.
According to the US embassy in Kampala, the money from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) was in the form of a three-year grant disbursed under American President George W Bush's Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR).
IRCU to mobilise, train volunteers
It said that it "will enable IRCU to greatly expand HIV/Aids services to local communities through its coordinated network of faith-based health units, non-governmental organisations, churches and mosques".
Embassy spokesperson Alyson Grunder said: "The health units affiliated with IRCU - currently offering over 40% of health care services in Uganda - will deliver the clinical components of the programme."
IRCU was also to mobilise and train volunteers to provide intermediate HIV/Aids care, support for anti-retroviral drug treatment and referrals for specialised care.
The five-year-old IRCU was comprised of the Catholic Church in Uganda, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, the Anglican Church of Uganda, the Uganda Orthodox Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
US 'undermines Uganda's plan'
It was created in direct response to the Bush administration's decision to allocate significant funding to faith-based groups, many of which promoted abstinence-only sex education schemes, to combat the spread of HIV/Aids.
According to its grant proposal, among its plans for the money were "promoting delayed initiation of sex among adolescent youth and increasing mutual fidelity among couples".
For the past two years, several health and human rights organisations had accused the US of undermining Uganda's "ABC" - "Abstinence, Be faithful, use Condoms" - anti-HIV/Aids campaign with its new emphasis.
ABC was credited with helping Uganda reduce its HIV prevalance from more than 15% in the 1990s to about six percent today, but critics of the US policy feared the gains could be lost if the "C" was removed or downplayed.
Aids had killed an estimated one million Ugandans since it was first diagnosed some 24 years ago, while a similar number carried the virus that caused the disease.
- AFP
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