HIV positive people must take the lead in the battle against the epidemic, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a message of support sent to the conference delegates in Uganda. “The fight against HIV/Aids cannot be won without you...Strategies can only succeed when people living with HIV take the lead...The voices of people living with HIV are the most powerful and we have to make sure those voices are heard.”
The conference unanimously approved a resolution condemning the British government for deporting a Ugandan with HIV who has been living in this country for the last five years. The move came after the UK Court of Appeal refused her leave to remain in Britain despite the fact that she has been on therapy, her husband and five of her children are dead and she has no support or access to anti-HIV medication back in Uganda. The resolution deplored the decision as inhumane, cruel and unworthy of any civilised society and called on the British government to review the case immediately.
Faith-based organisations are largely responsible for the stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV and Aids, a South African priest told the conference. Rev Jape Heath said many church leaders were to blame for demonising people living with the virus. “In the church we look at Aids like it equals sex; sex equals sin and sin equals death,” he said. “As religious leaders we have to break stigma and discrimination and stop regarding sex as sin.”
Six Indian delegates were detained and placed in quarantine at Mumbai airport on their way home from the Uganda conference for not possessing yellow fever vaccination certificates. The six say they were detained and quarantined without food after refusing to pay a $100 bribe to Indian immigration officials. And a flight of conference delegates from Entebbe was forced to make an emergency landing in Nairobi after the engines were hit by a flock of birds.
“We are the young generation, we are crying for our elders. They are
our fathers, they are our mothers, they are our sisters, they are our brothers.
We are crying for our elders who have gone.”
The Christ Day Primary School Choir, Kampala.
“As each HIV positive person comes out about their status, it really
helps with prevention. The fear is going down and that’s why more people
are testing.”
Cissy Ssuuna, Women’s Treatment Action Group,
Kampala.
“When you’re hungry you eat the seeds you kept for planting next
season.”
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
“If a tourist just sticks to tourism he will not get Aids.”
President
Museveni.
“The President stressed behavioural change and not condom use. Yet
Uganda has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the region. Are these people
being impregnated by the Holy Spirit?”
Major Rubaramira Ruranga, the conference chairman.
“It shouldn’t be Aids. It should be: Am I Doing Something?”
Major Ruranga
“We’re dealing with messy business here - sex, drugs and death.”
Stuart Flavell, international co-ordinator for GNP+.
