Museveni warns on early sex
Jul 02, 2014
President Yoweri Museveni has called on parents, religious and political leaders to talk to their children against engaging in early sex and having multiple sex partners saying they risk suffering from cancer of the cervix and ruining their future.
By Vision reporter
President Yoweri Museveni has called on parents, religious and political leaders to talk to their children against engaging in early sex and having multiple sex partners saying they risk suffering from cancer of the cervix and ruining their future.
“Talk to your children about the risks of engaging in early sex and having multiple sex partners. You should also take your girls aged between 8 – 12 years for immunization against cervical cancer. For girls who have already engaged in sex, they should go for examination and be helped. If they are safe, they must continue protecting themselves,” he said.
The President called on leaders to sensitize communities against forcing children into sexual acts, describing them as satanic and detrimental to the girl child’s life.
“Leaders and medical workers including pastors should sensitize our people about this. Everything has its time. The issue of science is that sexually consent should be 18 years and above and that is if you are well fed. People should not teach our children satanic things,” he said.
Museveni was speaking shortly after commissioning the new maternity ward at Mpigi Health Centre IV during his one day mobilization tour of the district. The ward was refurbished and equipped by various stakeholders including the area member of parliament through her NGO Twezimbe Development Foundation with the help of Chinese development partners led by the Chinese ambassador to Uganda Zhao Yali.
The ambassador also donated a 50inch TV set to the centre for patients to watch current affairs as they wait for attention.
“We have been handling health issues systematically. The first frontline was immunization which worked very well to eliminate polio and the mortality rate of children declined from about 1000 to 54%. This in turn pushed the population from 14 million to over 37 million,” he said.
Museveni said this coupled with government efforts to prevent mother to child HIV/AIDS transmission will ensure that children are born free from AIDS.
The President said governments’ strategy was prevention through immunization, adding however that this was not exhaustive. He urged Ugandans to promote hygiene, nutrition, immunization and behavior change together to reduce the disease burden. The President approved the request by the Health Centre for a full referral hospital status saying government policy is for each district to have a hospital.
The Minister of Health Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda urged leaders to encourage pregnant mothers to always for for antenatal care at least four times during pregnancy and said many mothers lives are lost because they deliver outside health units and get complications including losing a lot of blood.
Rugunda hailed President’s Museveni’s efforts to ensure that no child is born with HIV, saying that this coupled with the First Lady Janet Museveni’s campaign for PMTCT has ensured that 95% of mothers are screened and if positive, put on immediate treatment.
“With these efforts, by 2020 in Uganda, we should begin to see a generation of children born without HIV,” he said.
The Area Member of parliament Hon. Amelia Kyambadde said the President’s directive to build and equip maternity wards in Sekiwunga, Buyinga Island and Kampiringisa where on course and would soon be commissioned.
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