Uganda receives Shs600m from South African civil society to fight HIV/AIDS,TB

What you need to know:

  • The executive director of CEHURD, Mr Moses Mulumba, said the money received will be given out to partners and communities to make intervention by among others, identifying missed cases of AIDS and TB.
  • Another example of alleged discrimination was of a chilling story from a retired Grade One head teacher in Tororo District, Ms Proscovia Ayo, who told the stakeholders that she once found a padlock on her office door because of her HIV status.

KAMPALA. Uganda has received a boost of Shs600 million from South African partners' coalition to fight HIV/ AIDS discrimination and Tuberculosis (TB).
The money was donated by the Aids and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA).
Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), a civil society group has been picked to implement this programme that is expected to run for the next two years.

Mr Bruce Tushabe, an official from ARASA on Thursday told stakeholder's consultative meeting in Kampala, that the core reason for the donation is to strengthen capacity training about HIV and TB in communities.
"In the second year, we shall have much of advocacy among the communities," he said.

He named several African countries that have previously received and benefited from a similar donation to also fight AIDS as Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Tanzania, Mauritius and Kenya.

The executive director of CEHURD, Mr Moses Mulumba, said the money received will be given out to partners and communities to make intervention by among others, identifying missed cases of AIDS and TB.
"The effect is to open up a health system to be more humane by treating people living with HIV and TB just like any other people," Mr Mulumba said
Citing a case of discrimination on the basis of HIV status, MP Judith Alyek, the chairperson of HIV/Aids committee in Parliament, told the stakeholders that her committee has received over 15 complaints from people who claim to have been dismissed from work by Chinese road construction companies on grounds that they were found to be HIV positive.

"We got complaints of mistreatment of our people by Chinese construction companies. They had been dismissed because they were tested and found to be HIV positive. These people are already dismissed and are suffering," she said.
"Some of these people come from other countries and come here to discriminate against us in our own country, some of them have not even tested for the virus. This is unacceptable," added the visibly emotional lawmaker.

She further told the participants that about Shs10 billion was allocated for HIV Trust Fund in the next financial year to fight Aids.
Another example of alleged discrimination was of a chilling story from a retired Grade One head teacher in Tororo District, Ms Proscovia Ayo, who told the stakeholders that she once found a padlock on her office door because of her HIV status.
TB and HIV/AIDS remain some of the major public health problems in Uganda.
Currently, the HIV prevalence in Uganda is estimated at 6.3 per cent and approximately 50-60% of TB patients are also co-infected with HIV.
Uganda is among 22 high TB burdened countries in the world.