People Living with AIDS should be equal partners in fight
Oct 06, 2005
MANY of us may not know that there is a day to commemorate Philly Lutaaya, the first person to give a human face to HIV/AIDS. October 17 is the Philly Bongoley Lutaaya Day.
Joan Mugenzi
MANY of us may not know that there is a day to commemorate Philly Lutaaya, the first person to give a human face to HIV/AIDS. October 17 is the Philly Bongoley Lutaaya Day.
This Ugandan musician came out openly to declare his status at a time when nobody wanted to associate with the disease. Today, there is no need (at least in Uganda) for one to hide the fact. With the existing counselling services and support systems many people are now comforted.
An invite from Uganda AIDS Commission for the occasion had a paragraph on the key lessons learnt over the years in fighting the pandemic; that successful strategies for preventing new infections must engage people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs) as equal partners.
Indeed, this is still a virgin area. We have not fully exploited the potential PLWAs have especially in terms of determining what kind of services need to be accessed to them and with what modalities.
Somebody might empathise, but what better input than that from somebody who has first-hand experience? When they talk about stigma and discrimination, it will be from the heart; when they demand for ARVs, they will know what it means to live in fear of what happens when there is no access to treatment or when a regimen is out of stock! What about their contribution in terms of preparing for the future? Workplace policies? All these are issues that should not be put on the shelf.
There is something we all need to do — to honour people who declare their HIV positive status in a better way by advocating for policies that favour PLWAs. Those that need antiretroviral therapy should be able to access the drugs; that when there is demand for accountability, we can give it without hesitation.
The Government of Uganda, through the Uganda AIDS Commission declared Philly Lutaaya Day an annual national event in 2001. The day has since then been observed centrally in different venues and districts (Kampala 2001, Wakiso 2002, Mpigi 2003 and Kayunga 2004).
This year’s event will be for the last time centrally observed in Kampala on October 2005 at the Constitutional Square and thereafter it will be decentralised.
The event will be observed within the 2005 international World AIDS campaign theme: “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise†and will be guided by the local slogan, “Turning Remembrance into Action.â€
Let us be a part of this. Lutaaya died 14 years ago, but the mark he left put Uganda on the map in the fight against AIDS. May we not simply have him in history, let us encourage all those that come out openly to declare their status by considering their needs.
The writer is a Makerere University IPH-CDC HIV Programme Fellow
MANY of us may not know that there is a day to commemorate Philly Lutaaya, the first person to give a human face to HIV/AIDS. October 17 is the Philly Bongoley Lutaaya Day.
This Ugandan musician came out openly to declare his status at a time when nobody wanted to associate with the disease. Today, there is no need (at least in Uganda) for one to hide the fact. With the existing counselling services and support systems many people are now comforted.
An invite from Uganda AIDS Commission for the occasion had a paragraph on the key lessons learnt over the years in fighting the pandemic; that successful strategies for preventing new infections must engage people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs) as equal partners.
Indeed, this is still a virgin area. We have not fully exploited the potential PLWAs have especially in terms of determining what kind of services need to be accessed to them and with what modalities.
Somebody might empathise, but what better input than that from somebody who has first-hand experience? When they talk about stigma and discrimination, it will be from the heart; when they demand for ARVs, they will know what it means to live in fear of what happens when there is no access to treatment or when a regimen is out of stock! What about their contribution in terms of preparing for the future? Workplace policies? All these are issues that should not be put on the shelf.
There is something we all need to do — to honour people who declare their HIV positive status in a better way by advocating for policies that favour PLWAs. Those that need antiretroviral therapy should be able to access the drugs; that when there is demand for accountability, we can give it without hesitation.
The Government of Uganda, through the Uganda AIDS Commission declared Philly Lutaaya Day an annual national event in 2001. The day has since then been observed centrally in different venues and districts (Kampala 2001, Wakiso 2002, Mpigi 2003 and Kayunga 2004).
This year’s event will be for the last time centrally observed in Kampala on October 2005 at the Constitutional Square and thereafter it will be decentralised.
The event will be observed within the 2005 international World AIDS campaign theme: “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise†and will be guided by the local slogan, “Turning Remembrance into Action.â€
Let us be a part of this. Lutaaya died 14 years ago, but the mark he left put Uganda on the map in the fight against AIDS. May we not simply have him in history, let us encourage all those that come out openly to declare their status by considering their needs.
The writer is a Makerere University IPH-CDC HIV Programme Fellow