Uganda AIDS Activist Sees Hope in Rectal Microbicides

[Citizen News Service and IRMA are collaborating to amplify rectal microbicide research and advocacy, as well as IRMA-led initiatives, throughout AIDS 2012.]

via Citizen News Service, by Chief K Masimba Biriwasha

UGANDAN AIDS activist and medical doctor, Paul Semugoma, 42, said that rectal microbicides have a potential to save the unnecessary loss of lives among men who have sex with men in Uganda and across Africa. According to a study titled, "HIV Infection among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Kampala, Uganda – A Respondent Driven Sampling Survey," it is estimated that the adult male HIV prevalence in Kampala is 4.5 per cent but the prevalence estimates among men who
have sex with men (MSM) is 13.7 per cent. Most MSM still have sex with women, many are married, co-habit with women, and have biological children. MSM in Kampala appear firmly embedded in the general population.

Semugoma, who recently opened up about his sexual orientation after living in a closet for the best part of his life said that rectal microbicides are intuitive and therefore conducive to anal sex.

“The best part is that lubrication is required anyway for anal sex, and having a lube which also serves as a microbicide will help to save the lives of men who have sex with men. A lube will be fantastic because lube is always associated with penile anal sex,” said Semugoma, who is also a medical doctor.

Semugoma said that putting a rectal microbicides on the market in Uganda will be an uphill task due to the hostility against gay men in the country.

Read the rest.


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 *Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

 *Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

 *Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.
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Battling on Behalf of Gay, Lesbians and Other Sexual Minorities: A Frontline Experience from Uganda

by Anonymous (an IRMA member from Uganda)

Are you aware you are abetting “homosexuality” in Uganda?

Our grass-root takes us among “most at risk populations”-MARPs. The day dawned normally as a carry-over from the previous weekend spent visiting 7 scheduled gay men living with HIV.

Come 8th March 2012 and another anonymous phone call. This time a lady claiming she sells insurance policy calling to meet over a policy I need to have! This was the 17th anonymous phone call I had received since 1st March 2012. Others were of people calling from different parts of Uganda. One ominous one intimated on why am helping people who don’t deserve aiding. This one was at night. I dismissed it as a hoax.

But, on 8th March 2012 I get the call that changed the way I do my grass-root work. I was asked to report to CID (Criminal Investigation Directorate) headquarters for matters concerning our organisation.

I left Uganda and went to a next door country where I stayed up to end of April 2012. How I survived while there is another story too.

My argument is that we need to show the good in all. And this is the mission we pursue. I don’t deny being vocal and instrumental in bringing about visibility of issues of: MSM, Sexual minorities, Long Distance Truckers, substance users, Fisher folk, discordant couples, persons in long term relations and mobile populations. I have helped document this kind of work and it has been the basis of my presentations during consultative meetings on MARPs. This kind of work was first done privately and goes back to 2004. I took up positions with the Ministry of Health-Uganda and have been involved in planning programmes targeting MARPs. After applying and waiting for 4 years our NGO was finally registered in 2011 and have since mobilized grass-root groups to focus on vigilance/ resilience plans.

There has been so much talk on prevention but less on what works among/for MARPs. The Rights agenda has done so much to lay bear action points. With these groups it has been possible to show that MARPs face disproportionate treatment and access. We have improved on their competence and overall sensitivity to issues. They are trained to address issues and overcome them using small steps and participatory planning. It has been possible to disaggregate efforts according to various categories MARPs (MSM, other sexual minorities Sex-workers, Substance users, Fisher-folk, Truckers, PLHIV and couples).

 This is what I have written about consistently for past 3 years. And all this is shared on: www.marpsinuganda.org.

MEETING CID PEOPLE:

I wish to share with you my story as I gave it during the 2 sessions I had with the CID guys. I hope this case which is given as a narrative and retrospectively will help show what activists experience in Uganda. It is about my work and how much I endeavoured to posit the angle of health programming. It is not easy to provide services to those who need especially if they are labeled as undesirables. But, this is a calling that if unanswered may lead to further injustices. I fear for being outed as a “chief recruiter” as I go about my work of treating and doing anti-HIV programmes among at risk populations. There is this battle of egos. I see myself as a public health activist and yet my interrogators and officials from government see me as a “recruiter” climaxing into closure of meetings, denial of safe spaces, fear of de-licensing NGOs, arbitrary detentions and summons to police.

The experience of being hounded by security operatives is un-nerving, un-settling and demotivating. I was asked to go to the CID to report myself because am known to work with MARPs. I at first was scared and had to call two friends for advice: one is part of the high powered state security team and another is our organisation lawyer. These two told me to go and meet the CID but before doing that I first called the person who called me (a one Byakagaba). I told Byakagaba about the security person. This softened my landing immensely. I called him to ask to be given an orientation on what we had to meet about. We negotiated a safer neutral place and he obliged. We later met a bigger team of interrogators at 3 pm up to around 9.30 pm. I think I saw a face of one person we met in two meetings at Protea and during the Uganda Human Rights Commission public hearing on the Anti-Gay Bill.

I remember this person could be the face I recall of one who followed me to the Protea washrooms and asked me why I take time to “help” the homosexuals. I was asked so many questions and many of them repeatedly. I want to share them.

Below are some of the questions that were asked. I want to present to you the questions I recall being asked of me and perhaps that will also give you a perspective of things:

Are you aware you are abetting “homosexuality” in Uganda?

1. Why do you recruit?

2. Who do you recruit? ( In the car to check offices/ resource center)

3. Why do you help?

4. Is everything on these 2 desk tops?

5. Who provides money for all the equipments in your office?

6. Why is your office/resource center in a walled off perimeter?

7. Why did you pay rent, electricity, water bills for a full year? (After going through all filed reports in our filing cabinets)

8. Who else is helping you?

9. How come you have a website?

10. Why is there even any work done among the “homosexuals”?

11. How large are those networks?

12. Why do you help them organize?

13. How much commission do you get from facilitating them (actually said helping)?

14. Why do you treat them?

15. What age group is commonly seen?

16. Where do most meet for recreation?

17. Your neighbours complain of loud noise. Why?

18. Who pays for all the activities?

19. Who come to your resource center?

20. Are there some who spend nights?

21. How many weddings have you conducted here?

22. Why are your phone numbers always busy?

23. Who pays for your airtime?

24. Why do you make it a point to bring out issues of “homosexuals”?

25. Who are MARPs?

26. Why do you sacrifice so much for “them”? ( Towards end of first session at around 8.30 pm)

27. How many have you helped? ( This was another burly faced individual who was looking at me with a very mean and intimidating look).

28. Do you use your position to recruit?

I noticed the desire to label, I noticed the conclusions made around serving the marginalised and noticed the lackadaisical tendencies of the security personnel that already deny one due diligence and attendance even as one who is thought/perceived to be a ‘homosexual’.

In order to get out of this quandary, I asked to be let off with what I was told as we were in the car being driven back for interrogations from our organization offices. Our organisation has consistently been run using our own money. We have come so far and we do not want to stop this work. I did negotiate my temporary freedom and the next day had to leave Uganda. I still wonder at the fate of what they took from our offices. I believe they are now using our two new desk tops for their cafes or have sold them off. I did manage to talk to my captors. I was told to move somewhere for quite some time until issues cool off.

They had suggested 6 months and beyond as opposed to being exiled to a far away off place away from Kampala and my work. I left Uganda with only have a shirt, pair of trousers, a data USB with all sensitive information and my travel bag.

In all this I learnt one big lesson and that is: we need to have the argument of HIV broken down as resilience activities.

These are what we need to document further and share with panels be they the CID! We need to document vigilance and how we, in our efforts actually mobilise, trace, follow up people and that way we are able to identify those with HIV! HIV at grass-root means: being in position to conduct anti-HIV activities; identifying those suffering; remedying the suffering by talking to them to know their needs; integrating psyche-social, sexual health, mental health; preventing abuses, violations, discrimination and stigma and; economic empowerment of those in need.

The individuals, clubs, groups and organisations are an asset and not a liability. I risked lecturing my interrogators but I cannot know where that courage came from and talking reason humbles even the gun-strapping-hand-cuff swinging arms! The use of the word “recruitment” is so common among criminal systems it is also used to relate to the Al-Shabbab issues. People are imagining penetrating “cells” of recruitment with all connotations attached. There should be a clear action point on bringing out health, human rights and development matters of marginalized based on evidence. This is possible.

Let us discourage actions or events that are lacking in integration of health, human rights and development.

 

I FLEE UGANDA:

I approached a human rights defenders’ support organisation and was extended USD 1,000 and a return air ticket to a country of temporary refuge. I had a government salaried job which I had to to leave, home and organization built out of sweat. While in refuge I tried the refuge and asylum seeking procedures. I went to organisations which in turn referred me to other organisations. We had to wait for outcomes. I understand there were so much back and forth consultations and in the long run no support was provided for my further stay during refuge.

I LOOK FOR WORK TO SURVIVE:

After two weeks I run out of money. I decided to do some work pro-bono around treating “marginalized” or training them in health/vigilance/resilience planning integration skills. A friend introduced me to another friend who runs a chronic care center and there I did some volunteer work. I would stay in a nurses’ station and use the washrooms. This place is near the capital city of the country I had taken refuge in. I enrolled for volunteer work during weekends and was fortunate that there were health camps scheduled in the various peoples’ spaces. I was given short contracts in health counselling at the various stations and other activities. I would in turn get a meal and continued social interactions. However, on 27th April 2012, I developed severe malaria which I treated and with some little money I had saved decided to leave for Uganda. I stayed around a border town up to 25th May 2012. I later left under the cover of darkness for our organisation address. I met with friends who lived nearby and managed to get first had intelligence about the affairs of our organisation and the fate awaiting us.

LANDLORD EVICTS US:

Our offices were in a double house turned office and our landlord had got wind of the CID house search in May 2012. He immediately asked us to leave his premises because we were promoting homosexuality according to word going around. In order to get safe passage, I went to police and got two escorts to guard us as we were moving property. We had to get another place where it was safer.

COMMENTS FROM THE NEIGBOURHOOD:

We located our offices in a suburb where most Kampala population has their homes. The various families and residents ganged together and complained to local leaders to have us evicted. There was so much pressure towards our landlord to have us out of the place. We even had graffiti written all over our perimeter wall. We left the premises at night and managed to avoid media.

WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW:

This is July 2012 and we have a smaller place, have managed to attach 170 people living with HIV to Uganda government ARV-accredited facilities. We have approached 112 CBOs and referred all our clients to them for chronic care support. We have managed to conduct a major training for the leaders of 52 groups under our society to take on more organisational roles to avoid so much exposure as people drop into our resource center. We have closed down the transitory home where we would give refuge to evicted marginalised persons. We have had this since 2008. We have joined the bigger networks and have paid membership dues. Such bigger networks include: Uganda National AIDS network; Uganda Health Sciences Association; Uganda National Academy of Science and; Microbicide Trial Network under the Makerere-Johns Hopkins Collaboration. The idea is to engage more with policy. Programmes have been left with the groups which we shall monitor progressively. Another crucial issue is to mobilise resources to enable our organisation move on. We have established a resource mobilisation desk which I head.

APPEAL:

Friends, allies and well-wishers should realize that Africa has a vast number of activists, many of whom have not been exposed through meetings at local or international levels. There are activists bound by professional ethics not to disclose so much information about their work especially if it concerns health conditions. There are activists using music, dance and drama to convey messages of tolerance and interventions. Many have not been thanked nor are they supported by funds from external sources. These activists deserve our appreciation.

It is my hope that the Global North will one day reach out to these un-sung activists who are using all resources to make the life of many marginalised bearable.

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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.

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World Delegates Fight to Protect Homosexuals and Prostitutes in Uganda

via AllAfrica.com, by Gloria Nakiyimba

World politicians meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, have agreed on the need to repeal laws discriminating against HIV/Aids which they say have contributed to an increase in the rate of new infections.

MP's at the Inter Parliamentary Union assembly said laws that criminalize transmission of HIV, laws against sexual workers and those discriminating against sexual minorities need to be repealed.

Speaking during a panel discussion, Professor Sheila Tlou, UNAIDS Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, said "there is a fear that a still highly stigmatized condition such as Aids can, and will, fall out of the agenda of national and global leaders".

Tlou said early signs of a decreasing commitment to Aids in the form of reduced funding for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support were worrying especially since the epidemic is far from being over.

She said where the law deepens social fractures and inequality, denies access to services and criminalizes those who need these services it becomes an obstacle to the Aids response.

In Uganda, the HIV and Aids Prevention and Control Bill 2010 was aimed at criminalising attempted transmission of HIV. The anti-homosexuality bill which remains on the shelves of parliament was identified as discriminatory and hampering the fight against HIV/Aids.

MP's called for zero discrimination against people living with Aids if the new campaign for zero new HIV infections and zero Aids related deaths is to be successful.

Tlou said UNAIDS was working with countries to introduce a programme to eliminate mother-to-child transmission to ensure that no child is born with the disease.

In 2009, the World Health Organization estimated there are 33.4 million people worldwide living with HIV/Aids, with 2.7 million new HIV infections per year and two million annual deaths due to Aids.

Ugandan MP Doctor Elioda Tumwesigy said 7,000 people are infected every day worldwide - half the number are women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa.

Read the Rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Ugandan Gay Rights Activists Fight Against Anti-Homosexuality Bill

via Chicago Sun Times, by Frank Mugisha

The world listened last week as Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf defended her country’s laws that discriminate against its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex population. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, she spoke of preserving Liberia’s “traditional values” and said in part, “We like ourselves the way we are.”

It’s a sad sentiment I hear in my own country of Uganda: the idea that homosexuality is somehow un-African and foreign to our culture, an import of the West that must be stopped. But it is not African to restrict another’s freedom. It is not African to spread lies and dissent and urge brutality against others. And it is certainly not African to deny fellow citizens basic human rights. No, these are ideas introduced and fostered by our colonizers, not by our ancestors.

My organization, Sexual Minorities Uganda, works against these forces of hate and division, and we live every day under the threats of violence that keep so many LGBTI Ugandans from coming forward. In 2010, a local newspaper published photographs and addresses of many of us under the headline “Hang Them.”

But still we work, because there is so much work to be done: gay men to be rescued from jail after arbitrary arrests and beatings. Lesbian women who need to be sheltered after curative rape assaults. Friends to be healed after being denied medical care.

The anti–gay groups call this struggle a campaign for gay rights. But there is nothing gay or straight about the right to worship, to assemble publicly or to live without fear of sanctioned brutality.

In Uganda today, bosses routinely fire employees suspected of being gay. We can be expelled from school or denied medical attention. Our friends and neighbors can be persecuted just for being seen with us.
The Ugandan Parliament is pushing a bill that is inspired by hateful ideas brought to us, not from within Africa, but by anti-gay activists like Scott Lively from the United States. The new law would equate gay people with pedophiles and call on the LGBTI population to stop “promoting homosexuality.”


The original version of the legislation even called for applying the death penalty to gay couples, and although it may be revoked from the final bill, even the more “palatable” version seeks to silence our voices, criminalize anyone who speaks on our behalf and encourage the wrongheaded stigmas that increase our nation’s rising HIV prevalence.
Read the Rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

High HIV Prevalence Found Among Ugandan Sex Workers

via New Vision, by Joyce Nyakato

New research published in The Lancet, an international medical journal, has revealed that commercial sex workers in Uganda have one of the highest rates of HIV infections in the world.

Some 99,878 female sex workers in 50 countries (14 in Asia, four in Eastern Europe, 11 in Latin America and the Caribbean, one in the Middle East and 20 in Africa), were subjects in the study conducted between January 1, 2007 and June 25, 2011. Results of the study, which was led by Dr. Stefan Baral of the US-based John Hopkins School of Public Health, were released on Thursday.

The study, which assessed the burden of HIV compared to that of other women of reproductive age, found that the burden is disproportionately high and concluded that there is an urgent need to scale up access to quality HIV prevention programs for sex workers.

State minister for ethics and integrity Fr. Simon Lokodo agrees that like all Ugandans, sex workers have a right to HIV treatment and attention.

“However, giving them the leeway to operate as a business is too much to ask from the Government,” he said.

The four-year survey funded by the World Bank and the United Nations Population Fund ranked Uganda as one of the countries where sex workers had a higher HIV prevalence than other women.

Women who sell sex came sixth among the 20 African countries after Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya and Benin.

An average of four sex workers in ten will have HIV.

This rate is about five times more than other women of reproductive age, who have 7.7% prevalence, according to the recent AIDS indicator survey released by the Ministry of Health last week.

In addition, the likelihood of new HIV infections among sex workers stands at 15%.

“These findings suggest an urgent need to scale up access to quality HIV prevention services among female sex workers because of their heightened burden of disease and the likelihood of onward transmission through the high number of sexual partners as clients,” Stefan wrote.

Read the Rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Increase in HIV Prevalence Causes Concern in Uganda

via PlusNews Global

Uganda's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has risen from 6.4 percent to 6.7 percent, according to a recently released national AIDS Indicator Survey.

The population-based HIV serological survey showed that 6.7 percent of adults aged between 15 and 49 were HIV-positive, while at least 500,000 people have been infected with the virus in the past five years.

Uganda's HIV prevalence fell from a high of 18 percent in 1992 to 6.1 percent in 2002; this rate later stabilized and then stagnated at about 6.4 percent in 2004, when the last such survey was conducted.

Some 7.7 percent of women are positive, compared to 5.6 percent of men, according to the 25-page preliminary report launched by Health Minister Christine Ondoa on 15 March in the capital, Kampala. The full report is due for release in June 2012.

Government officials have played down the higher prevalence. "The increase is not much… because of the population growth; there are new people entering into the age bracket of 15 to 19," said Dr Zainab Akol, programme manager for HIV in the Ministry of Health.

However, activists are concerned that the new statistics are the result of gaps in the government's HIV prevention programmes.

"I don't agree that the rise is merely as a result of an age shift - prevention efforts do not match the needs of the population... it is not uncommon to run out of basic [HIV prevention] supplies like condoms," said Milly Katana, long-term activist and one of the inaugural board members of the Global Fund to fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"We are becoming increasingly concerned about risk compensation as a result of failing HIV prevention messages," she added. "People, especially the elites in cities, have a false sense of safety... we did work 10 years ago but it is not enough; behaviour change is not sustainable without regular doses of information."

Despite years of condom promotion, the survey found that just 28.1 percent of women and 31.4 percent of men aged between 15 and 19 used a condom during their last sexual encounter, dropping to 6.7 percent and 12.2 percent respectively among 30- to 39-year-olds.

Read the Rest.



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Ugandan Gay Rights Activists Take Action

via New York Times, by Laurie Goodstein

A Ugandan gay rights group filed suit against an American evangelist, Scott Lively, in federal court in Massachusetts on Wednesday, accusing him of violating international law by inciting the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Uganda.

The lawsuit maintains that beginning in 2002, Mr. Lively conspired with religious and political leaders in Uganda to whip up anti-gay hysteria with warnings that gay people would sodomize African children and corrupt their culture.

The Ugandan legislature considered a bill in 2009, proposed by one of Mr. Lively’s Ugandan contacts, that would have imposed the death sentence for the “offense of homosexuality.” That bill languished after an outcry from the United States and European nations that are among major aid donors to Uganda, but was reintroduced last month.

Mr. Lively is being sued by the organization Sexual Minorities Uganda under the alien tort statute, which allows foreigners to sue in American courts in situations asserting the violation of international law. The suit says that Mr. Lively’s actions resulted in the persecution, arrest, torture and murder of gay men and lesbians in Uganda.

Reached by telephone in Springfield, Mass., where he runs Holy Grounds Coffee House, a storefront mission and shop, Mr. Lively said he did not know about the lawsuit. Nevertheless, he said: “That’s about as ridiculous as it gets. I’ve never done anything in Uganda except preach the Gospel and speak my opinion about the homosexual issue.”

Mr. Lively is the founder and president of Abiding Truth Ministries. He is also the author of “The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party,” which says that Nazism was a movement inspired by homosexuals, and “Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child,” a guide to prevent what he calls “pro-homosexual indoctrination.”

He has traveled to Uganda, Latvia and Moldova to warn Christian clergy members to defend their countries against what he says is an onslaught by gay rights advocates based in the West.

Read the Rest.



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Why Uganda’s Anti-Gay Legislation Is the World’s Business

via Bloomberg News, by the editors

Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill just won’t go away.

Last spring, an egregious proposal by a member of the ruling party to impose harsh penalties, including death, for homosexual acts was shelved for a second time when Uganda’s parliament recessed without debating it. This week, parliament moved to revive the measure.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda. The law would increase the maximum penalties, providing up to life imprisonment for homosexual acts and execution for so-called aggravated homosexuality -- repeated homosexual behavior, homosexual acts with a minor or a disabled person, and homosexual acts by anyone who is HIV-positive.

The original bill also made it punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment to fail to report homosexual behavior to authorities within 24 hours. In the last parliamentary session, a committee recommended scratching that provision, which would compromise health workers involved in AIDS control efforts. It’s not clear this time around whether the bill will go through the committee process anew; in any case, committee views are not binding.

The bill enjoys considerable support in Uganda, where homosexuality is widely abhorred, and may well pass if it comes to a parliamentary vote. President Yoweri Museveni would probably veto it, knowing that passage would alienate Uganda’s Western allies, on whom the country relies for development assistance.

For now, the circus around the draft law suits Museveni, who has been in power for 25 years. Domestically, it whips up support for his party, the National Resistance Movement. Internationally, it attracts opprobrium but also distracts critics from other Ugandan scandals for which Museveni bears more direct responsibility: the arrest of opposition figures, police brutality, corruption.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Meet Moses Nsubuga Supercharger: Our New Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate!

“The task is hard but with determination we shall win together. Continue to keep the fire burning and remember it can even burn deep in the ocean.”

Moses is an IRMA advocate from Kampala, Uganda. He has been living with HIV since 1994 and is quite the superstar. He is a musician, radio host, TV presenter, actor, and activist who has a passion to fight HIV for people all over the world.

In 2000 he formed The Stigmaless Band - a music and drama group of adolescents living with HIV. Their objectives include encouraging early treatment, treatment adherence, and fighting stigma. The success of the band allowed Moses to collaborate with other community based organizations throughout Uganda and to eventually form a larger group called Joint Adherent Brothers and Sisters Against AIDS (JABASA). JABASA’s mission is to attain equal rights for minority and at-risk groups; to encourage early treatment for adults; and to help HIV positive Ugandans become financially self-sufficient by providing them with small loans to begin small income generating projects.

In 2009 he was contracted by USAID and The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) to host an HIV quiz game on television called “Everybody Wins When We Know the Facts about HIV.” As the show gained popularity and was being broadcast in more and more districts throughout Uganda, he was suspended from this work for opposing a law that he believed would criminalize and oppress minority groups if passed.

This did not slow Moses down! Since then he has become the manager of Searchland Shows, where he organizes music shows to advocate for treatment, condoms, and microbicides as prevention. He has also started an orphanage to look after the children of musicians who have died of AIDS. Currently he supports 34 children.

He believes microbicides have the potential to be one of the best prevention options available. He is very active on the IRMA listserv and always challenging opinions, asking questions, and striving to learn more.

Read more bios on the IRMA website.



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Meet Thomas Muyunga: Another New Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate!

“When one goes to fish, they go to the water body for fish. With the net one catches all sorts of fish and other debris. Sorting out the fish from debris is part of fishing. Same applies to HIV work. Talk about HIV, engage in activities around mobilising beneficiaries and challenge them to participate fully- make it enjoyable. Show the whole list of HIV fuels. Show how stigma, discrimination and abuse fuel HIV in communities.”

Thomas Muyunga is an IRMA Advocate from Kampala, Uganda. There he is CEO of MARPS (Most At Risk Populations’ Society) In Uganda, an umbrella organization committed to “lasting, enduring, and durable solutions against poverty.” Their work focuses on “PLEASE” - Protection, Lasting sexual-reproductive health practices, Empowerment, Attitude change, Social integration and Education. Thomas loves to mobilize communities and prepare and empower them to fight poverty, discrimination, and HIV.

Thomas has worked in HIV Services Provision since 1993 when he was a student volunteer at Rotary International. He first became aware of microbicides at an STD/STI Clinic at the National Referral Hospital in Uganda. He has since dedicated much time and effort to learning about and advocating for the development of successful microbicides. He will join IRMA as a Project ARM (Africa for Rectal Microbicides) scholarship grantee in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia prior to ICASA 2011 to be part of a working meeting to develop an African rectal microbicide agenda!

He believes rectal microbicides are very important because they bring more attention to anal intercourse and help to create conversation about it. He hopes this will also stimulate talk about the power dynamics of anal intercourse.

His advice for others wanting to become IRMA advocates is to first focus on learning as much as possible about HIV prevention, care and treatment so that you can teach others about these issues. Education will also prepare you to inform planning, programming and policy. We can only move forward if we are educated.

Read more Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate bios.



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

The Rape of Men

via The Guardian, by Will Storr

Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world's conflicts.

Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour. It is usually denied by the perpetrator and his victim. Governments, aid agencies and human rights defenders at the UN barely acknowledge its possibility. Yet every now and then someone gathers the courage to tell of it. This is just what happened on an ordinary afternoon in the office of a kind and careful counsellor in Kampala, Uganda. For four years Eunice Owiny had been employed by Makerere University's Refugee Law Project (RLP) to help displaced people from all over Africa work through their traumas. This particular case, though, was a puzzle. A female client was having marital difficulties. "My husband can't have sex," she complained. "He feels very bad about this. I'm sure there's something he's keeping from me."

Owiny invited the husband in. For a while they got nowhere. Then Owiny asked the wife to leave. The man then murmured cryptically: "It happened to me." Owiny frowned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an old sanitary pad. "Mama Eunice," he said. "I am in pain. I have to use this."

Laying the pus-covered pad on the desk in front of him, he gave up his secret. During his escape from the civil war in neighbouring Congo, he had been separated from his wife and taken by rebels. His captors raped him, three times a day, every day for three years. And he wasn't the only one. He watched as man after man was taken and raped. The wounds of one were so grievous that he died in the cell in front of him.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Microbicide Trials Network Statement on Decision to Discontinue Use of Oral Tenofovir Tablets in VOICE, a Major HIV Prevention Study in Women

via Microbicide Trials Network

VOICE, an HIV prevention trial evaluating two antiretroviral (ARV)-based approaches for preventing the sexual transmission of HIV in women – daily use of one of two different ARV tablets or of a vaginal gel – will be dropping one of the oral tablets from the study. The decision to discontinue use of tenofovir tablets in VOICE comes after a routine review of study data concluded that the trial will not be able to demonstrate that tenofovir tablets are effective in preventing HIV in the women enrolled in the trial. VOICE will continue to test the safety and effectiveness of the other oral tablet, Truvada®, a combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine, and of the vaginal gel formulation of tenofovir.

Importantly, the review, which was conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)’s independent Prevention Trials Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), identified no safety concerns with any of the products being studied in VOICE.

VOICE – Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic – involves 5,029 women at 15 trial sites in Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The trial is being conducted by the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), an HIV/AIDS clinical trials network funded by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases with co-funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute for Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Mental Health, all components of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The study was designed with five study groups: tenofovir gel, an inactive placebo gel, oral tenofovir, oral Truvada and an inactive placebo tablet. The women in each group (about 1,000) are asked to take their assigned study product daily. VOICE is the only trial evaluating the daily use of an ARV tablet – an approach called oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP – and a vaginal gel in the same study. This design is important for determining how each product works compared to its control (placebo gel or placebo tablet) and which approach women prefer.

On September 16, 2011, the NIAID Prevention Trials DSMB reviewed VOICE study data for the period between Sept. 9, 2009, when the study began, and July 1, 2011. Based on this interim review, the DSMB determined that it was not possible to show whether oral tenofovir tablets were any better than a placebo for preventing HIV in the women assigned to that study group. The DSMB therefore recommended that the women randomized to the oral tenofovir tablet group discontinue their use of the study product. This recommendation does not apply to the women in the groups using either the tenofovir gel or oral Truvada tablets, or the corresponding placebos; the DSMB recommended that these four study groups continue in VOICE.
 
Read the rest.
 
 
[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

David Kato Vision and Voice Award

via visionandvoiceaward.com

David Kato - human rights activist, friend, and colleague - was murdered in his home in Kampala, Uganda on 26 January 2011.

In recognition of his life and courage, and the continued struggle of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals around the world, partners committed to eliminating violence, stigma and discrimination have established the David Kato Vision & Voice Award.
Inspired by his work, the award recognizes the leadership of individuals who strive to uphold the numerous dimensions of sexual rights for LGBTI people. Sexual rights are an evolving set of entitlements related to sexuality that contribute to the freedom, equality and dignity of all people, and are an important aspect of human rights. The realization of these rights is also an integral element to a meaningful HIV response among these marginalized groups.

Click here for more award and nomination information.



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Treatment and Prevention: Interview w/Uganda's Dr. Patrick Ndase

via The Observer, by Shifa Mwesigye

Excerpt:

"Uganda has participated just like several other African countries; [in research] you must go where infection is happening. The majority of HIV research in the early stages happened in Uganda because Uganda was heavily infested with the virus. As you remember we had prevalence rates of above 20% and then we had the so called Uganda success story after the zero grazing campaign.

"At the time, the countries in southern Africa which largely [depend on] tourism were silent on HIV infection. Now the countries that are laden with infection are Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. So majority of HIV prevention research is not happening in Uganda anymore. In fact it is difficult to get someone who wants to do HIV research to come to Uganda."

Read the rest.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

The crazy things they say: politicians and HIV

Via PlusNews.

Political commitment is key to the success of HIV programmes and African leaders have been at the forefront of the fight against HIV on the continent, but politicians also have the power to harm HIV/AIDS campaigns.

Uganda's recently appointed health minister, Christine Ondoa, has been berated by AIDS activists for comments she allegedly made in an interview with a local newspaper on 1 August. According to The Observer, Ondoa claimed to know three people who had been cured of HIV through prayer.

"I am sure and I have evidence that someone who was [HIV] positive turned negative after prayers," she said.

Activists described her comments as "careless and misleading". Ondoa joins a long list of African leaders who have been criticized for comments deemed detrimental to the fight against HIV; here are some of the more controversial statements made by politicians:

Thabo Mbeki - In 1999, the then South African president said the ARV zidovudine - also known as AZT - had toxic side-effects and was dangerous to health, and as such, the government would not provide it free of charge to HIV-positive pregnant women.

Mbeki stirred controversy when he questioned the causal link between HIV and AIDS; in 2000 he set up a Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel, largely comprising AIDS denialists, to discuss how South Africa should deal with the crisis.

Mbeki also evoked conspiracy theories by alleging that the US Central Intelligence Agency, working with large pharmaceutical companies, was part of a conspiracy to promote the view that HIV caused AIDS.

In 2001, the NGO Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) filed a lawsuit against the government aimed at giving HIV-positive pregnant women access to the ARV, nevirapine, used to reduce the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child. TAC won the case, and the government was forced to provide the drug through the public health system.

According to the authors of a 2008 Harvard study, more than 330,000 lives were lost as a result of the delays in implementing a feasible and timely ARV treatment programme in South Africa.

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang - South Africa's health minister from 1999 to 2008 under Mbeki, her years in office were characterized by controversy, largely due to her reluctance to develop public sector policies involving the use of ARVs to fight AIDS.

Even after ARVs became available, Tshabalala-Msimang continued to cast doubt on their safety and efficacy, actively endorsing alternative therapists who promoted scientifically untested alternatives to ARVs.

Read the rest here.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

More in Uganda: Minister Comments Carelessly on HIV/AIDS

Via In2EA.

The Health Minister Christine Ondoa’s remarks that HIV/Aids can be cured through prayer have not been received well by both health practitioners and born-again preachers who called it careless and misleading remarks.

Yesterday, Ms Ondoa was quoted by the Observer newspaper to have had a firsthand experience with people she claimed were infected by the HIV/Aids virus but after a series of prayer, tested negative.

She, however, observed that medical workers and the general public should be cautious about people who claim they were healed of HIV, adding that as a scientist she is often careful not to automatically believe a person who comes to her presenting negative results after being prayed for. Such a person’s sero status must be checked and their medical records that show they tested positive must be scrutinised, Ms Ondoa added.

The Head of The Aids Support Organisation (TASO), Mr Richard Ochai, who refused to believe that a minister could say such a thing, said such statements, most especially from born-again churches, are continuously curtailing TASO efforts to fight against HIV/Aids whose prevalence in recent years is said to have increased in the country.

He said science has proved that if one takes ARVs the viral load will become low such that they may not be detected but once they stop taking the drug, the virus will definitely be seen again. “We know God can do miracles if he so wishes but these many possibilities still need scientific prove,” Dr Ochai said.

Read the rest here.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Former Ex-Gay Ugandan Man Now Regrets Past Homophobic Comments

Via Behind the Mask.

A man who in 2009 renounced homosexuality at a public forum in Kampala has now told Behind the Mask that he regrets his previous actions and would like to be forgiven by the LGBTI community.

Saying that he felt “there is a fire in the belly saying gay is really who you are,” Mr George Oundo, known amongst Uganda’s LGBTI community as “Ms Georgina,” said that although he had renounced homosexuality on national media, at an opportune time he would ask the Kuchu community (Ugandan slang for LGBTI) to take him back.

Speaking on Wednesday July 27, 2011 to Behind the Mask outside the magistrate’s court in Kampala where three Christian evangelist preachers have been charged with making homophobic smears against a rival preacher, the now former ex-gay Oundo said he once again believed, “being gay is natural and inborn.”

The accused preachers, their lawyers, Henry Ddungu and David Kaggwa, together with David Mukalazi and Deborah Kyomuhendo (agents of the accused) face charges of conspiring to injure Pastor Robert Kayanja’s reputation by claiming that Kayanja sodomised boys in his church. The two lawyers are charged with allegedly commissioning false affidavits.

In March 2009 Oundo spoke at a Christian seminar and said he previously supported homophobic preacher Martin Sempa and legislator Mr David Bahati in their claims that homosexuals recruit children in schools and deserve the death penalty.

Speaking on Wednesday however, the now former ex-gay man said that he regrets the comments.

Looking sad, Mr Oundo, who once helped to establish an LGBTI human rights advocacy group in Kampala, said that although the preachers had given him some money and built him a house in Muyenga-Bukasa, a posh suburb of Kampala, he still had gay feelings. “I have never even become born again. I just do not want to be born again.”

Read the rest here.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

UGANDA NOW TO INCLUDE HOMOSEXUALS IN HIV PROGRAMMES

Via Behind the Mask.

In an incredible change of heart, the Uganda government has listed homosexuals as a target for HIV/Aids programming in a new five year National HIV Prevention Strategy for Uganda 2011-2015.

The policy document which Behind the Mask has seen will run under the theme: “Expanding and Doing HIV Prevention better.” The policy development process is spearheaded by the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC), with consultations of various stakeholders including Civil Society.

Until recently, the UAC had publicly stated that they had no funds for targeting homosexuals in HIV programming. “Gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda, but because of meagre resources we cannot direct our programmes at them at this time,” Dr Kihumuro Apuuli, (pictured) the Director General of UAC was quoted saying in 2008.

However, some have suggested that the UAC was being influenced by Christian born again movements who were lobbying Uganda’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, a born again Christian herself, not to recognize gays in any policy document. The UAC was established by an act of Parliament, and is directly under President’s Office.

The National HIV Prevention Strategy sets forth opportunities and guidance for intensified efforts to significantly stem new HIV infections. Its vision builds on that of the National HIV/Aids Strategic Plan(NSP), of a Uganda where new HIV infections are rare, and where everyone, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or socio‐economic status has uninterrupted access to high quality and effective HIV prevention.

“The overall goal of the strategy is to reduce new HIV infections by 30percent based on the baseline of 2009 which would result in 40percent reduction of the projected number of new HIV infections in 2015,” the policy text reads in part.

Ms Hasifa Nakiganda, an LGBTI lobbyist with Uhspa Uganda welcomed the contents of the draft policy. She said Uganda’s burying its head in the sand over homosexuals was setting a bad example, because Uganda was a reference country when it came to the best management of HIV/Aids. “So by denying homosexuals universal access to HIV programming, Uganda is sending a bad signal to other countries struggling with the HIV pandemic,” Ms Hasifa said. Uhspa Uganda petitioned the Ugandan Parliament pleading for homosexuals Right to Health and HIV programming inclusion.

Uganda has only one policy that recognizes homosexuals as a target for health service delivery- the National Policy Guidelines and Service Standards for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. But homophobia prevents gays from accessing public health services.

The new NPS policy aligns with the National Development Plan for Uganda and the, the Second National Health Policy, and the Health Sector Strategic and Investment Plan (HSSIP) (2010-2015). It will contribute to attainment of Universal Access, as per the UNGASS- United Nations General Special Session Country Progress Declaration of Commitment on HIV/Aids and MDG (Millennium Development Goals) 5, 6, and 7 targets; calling  for increased focus, coordination and collaboration to comprehensively scale‐up HIV prevention efforts and align them to the drivers of the epidemic.

Read the rest here.

Read another Behind the Mask article discussing this news here.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Ugandan Lawmakers okay HIV/Aids Bill

Via the Daily Monitor, by Mercy Nalugo.

Ugandan Lawmakers Wednesday resisted pressure from the human rights defenders and backed the new HIV /Aids Prevention and Control Bill that seeks to criminalise the intentional spread of HIV/Aids.

Briefing the new members on the Parliamentary HIV/Aids committee about their expectations, work plan and how far the eighth Parliament had gone with scrutinising the controversial Bill, the new committee chairperson, Ms Rosemary Najjemba Muyinda (NRM, Gomba) said most of the controversial clauses in the Bill were dropped.

“The Bill is now in its advanced stages since it was discussed by our colleagues in the eighth Parliament. So many stakeholders have been consulted and all the contentious issues were dropped. The Bill once passed into law will protect those without HIV from being infected. We have to take the Bill forward,” Ms Najjemba said.

She said the principles in the Bill were agreeable to the committee members since they are aimed at combating the intentional spread of HIV/Aids.

“For example why should someone infect the other with aids intentionally? That is a crime that should not go unpunished,” she said.

The controversial Bill that hands down a 10 year penalty in jail to individuals that knowingly infect others with the deadly aids disease has faced a lot of criticism from the human rights defenders both local and international.

They argue that the Bill violates human rights and threatens the progress the country has so far attained in fighting HIV/Aids as it legislates for mandatory testing for HIV and forced disclosure of HIV status.

Some of the human rights defenders against the Bill include Action Aid International,l Uganda Global AIDS Alliance,United States,the Global Forum on MSM & HIV United States,Global Coalition of Women against AIDS in Uganda,Uganda Network of AIDS Service Organisation (UNASO) and Uganda Young Positives among others.

Also in the Bill, Women who transmit HIV to their infants after birth through breast milk would also be subject to criminal prosecution. The activists concern is that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to determine who infected the other in courts of law hence making ignorance of one's status an effective defence.

Read the rest here.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

UPDATE ON UGANDA GAY-DEATH BILL

Via Mamba Online.

A member of parliament in Uganda says that the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill is likely to be made law within two months.

MP Otto Odonga, a member of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee in the country’s new parliament, told US professor and blogger Warren Throckmorton via Skype that the bill's author, David Bahati, will re-introduce the legislation as soon as possible.

"It will be expedited this time around and passed within one, maybe two months time,” Odonga said.

He added that the current committee would be able to make use of the report supporting the bill issued by the previous committee during the last parliament.

In May, legislators failed to debate and vote on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill after that parliamentary session ran out of time and was dissolved.

Originally introduced in October 2009, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill allows for the death penalty in cases of “aggravated homosexuality” and includes various criminal penalties for anyone who fails to turn over gay people to the police or who "promotes" homosexuality.

An international petition opposing the bill was signed by over 1.6 million people. It has been condemned by numerous governments around the world, some threatening to suspend aid to Uganda if it is passed.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]