Janet hosts first ladies over AIDS

Jun 08, 2004

UGANDA'S First Lady Janet Museveni yesterday hosted African First Ladies to discuss the HIV/AIDS scourge on the continent.

By David Muwanga

UGANDA'S First Lady Janet Museveni yesterday hosted African First Ladies to discuss the HIV/AIDS scourge on the continent.

They included Queen Simbonelo Mbikiza (Swaziland), Maureen Mwanawasa (Zambia), Jeanette Kagame (Rwanda), Lucy Kibaki (Kenya), Ethel Wamutharika (Malawi) and Mary Mwencha, wife to the secretary general of the Common Market for East and Central Africa (COMESA), Donald McKnnon.

“We want Africa’s First Ladies to not only be seen at parties, but also participate in development. Our people in rural areas face hardships and it’s our duty to help them,” Museveni said at Sheraton Kampala Hotel yesterday.

She said it would be shameful for Africa to regret in the next 50 years, having wasted this decade.

“Since most First Ladies are participating in anti-AIDS programmes, we need meetings like this one to empower ourselves for better results,” she said.

Aids Control Programme manager Elizabeth Madra said since 1982, over two million people had been infected out of which one million had died.

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