Museveni, Janet win AIDS award
Jun 20, 2004
IN recognition of their successful fight against the HIV/AIDS scourge, President Yoweri Museveni and his wife, Janet, have been given the Hero Award 2004 by the United States Medical Institute for Sexual Health (MISH), reports <b>Alfred Wasike.</b>
IN recognition of their successful fight against the HIV/AIDS scourge, President Yoweri Museveni and his wife, Janet, have been given the Hero Award 2004 by the United States Medical Institute for Sexual Health (MISH), reports Alfred Wasike.
The First Lady received the award last week at the institute’s 2004 national meeting (June 17-19) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C.
She accompanied Museveni to the US where he met President George Bush and other world leaders at the G8 summit.
MISH president Ray Ruddy said the award was accorded after a careful study of their contribution to the struggle against the pandemic.
He hailed Uganda’s ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful in marriage and use Condoms) strategy that has formed the basis for the US National Policy on HIV/AIDS.
Mrs. Museveni told the conference that Uganda registered success in the war against the epidemic due to the openness policy backed by the country’s leadership, reducing the spread of the disease from over 30% in the 1980s to the current 6%, a State House statement said.
She said Uganda adopted a multi-sectoral approach, focusing on prevention of HIV/AIDS, supporting those living positively with it, mitigating its impact and building capacity against it as some of the strategies that have “successfully been undertaken to fight the scourge in Uganda,†State House added.
Mrs Museveni said massive sensitive programmes spearheaded by President Museveni, aimed at targeting the vulnerable youth to practice abstinence from sex and faithfulness in marriage, further reduced the AIDS carnage.
She said the initiatives instituted in Uganda were realistic for other countries, including the United States, that face HIV/AIDS, STD (sexually transmitted diseases) or high non-marital pregnancies.
The Physician, an Internet magazine linked to MISH, said, “Mrs. Museveni and her husband, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, are the world’s leaders in providing national leadership in calling for behavior change as a solution for a raging HIV epidemic.â€
“As a result of their national call for sexual abstinence for unmarried individuals and faithfulness within marriage, 95% of Ugandans in the year 2000 had either zero or only one sexual partner. Primarily because of this, HIV rates have declined by two-thirds in Uganda over the last decade and a half,†the publication said.
The Physician noted, “As a result of her incredibly powerful and effective role in showing that it is realistic for leaders to model and call for healthy behavior, Mrs. Museveni will receive The Medical Institute’s “Hero Award†for her husband and herself.â€
Ends
The First Lady received the award last week at the institute’s 2004 national meeting (June 17-19) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C.
She accompanied Museveni to the US where he met President George Bush and other world leaders at the G8 summit.
MISH president Ray Ruddy said the award was accorded after a careful study of their contribution to the struggle against the pandemic.
He hailed Uganda’s ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful in marriage and use Condoms) strategy that has formed the basis for the US National Policy on HIV/AIDS.
Mrs. Museveni told the conference that Uganda registered success in the war against the epidemic due to the openness policy backed by the country’s leadership, reducing the spread of the disease from over 30% in the 1980s to the current 6%, a State House statement said.
She said Uganda adopted a multi-sectoral approach, focusing on prevention of HIV/AIDS, supporting those living positively with it, mitigating its impact and building capacity against it as some of the strategies that have “successfully been undertaken to fight the scourge in Uganda,†State House added.
Mrs Museveni said massive sensitive programmes spearheaded by President Museveni, aimed at targeting the vulnerable youth to practice abstinence from sex and faithfulness in marriage, further reduced the AIDS carnage.
She said the initiatives instituted in Uganda were realistic for other countries, including the United States, that face HIV/AIDS, STD (sexually transmitted diseases) or high non-marital pregnancies.
The Physician, an Internet magazine linked to MISH, said, “Mrs. Museveni and her husband, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, are the world’s leaders in providing national leadership in calling for behavior change as a solution for a raging HIV epidemic.â€
“As a result of their national call for sexual abstinence for unmarried individuals and faithfulness within marriage, 95% of Ugandans in the year 2000 had either zero or only one sexual partner. Primarily because of this, HIV rates have declined by two-thirds in Uganda over the last decade and a half,†the publication said.
The Physician noted, “As a result of her incredibly powerful and effective role in showing that it is realistic for leaders to model and call for healthy behavior, Mrs. Museveni will receive The Medical Institute’s “Hero Award†for her husband and herself.â€
Ends