Ugandan First Lady Recognized by Parliament for Promoting Chastity in Fight against AIDS

By Hilary White

KAMPALA, Uganda, March 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The speaker of the Ugandan Parliament has recognized Janet Museveni, the wife of the president of Uganda, for her outspoken activism on the AIDS epidemic. Besides receiving an award, she was mentioned in a Parliamentary resolution recognising the outstanding contributions by individuals and institutions in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

At an event to mark 25 years of the disease in Uganda, Mrs. Museveni told the young people of her country to abstain from sexual activity. The First Lady was speaking to an audience of students at Kampala International University at a conference on reproductive health this past Saturday. In addition to her comments about abstinence, she said that the AIDS epidemic has become a money-making opportunity for the unscrupulous.

Infection rates in the country were dropping in the 1990's under the government's abstinence programme, but are now starting to rise again.

"This is an indication," she said. "That groups which are purportedly more mature have thrown caution to the winds, settled for reckless living, putting themselves, their families and newborn babies at risk."

Museveni has frequently spoken in contradiction to the reigning policies of international AIDS organizations that continue to emphasize the use of condoms to prevent the spread of the disease. AIDS activists in Uganda have blamed the "multimillion dollar AIDS industry" that originated in western countries, and the international health organizations.

Martin Sempa, a leading Ugandan AIDS fighter told LifeSiteNews.com on the occasion of the Toronto International AIDS Conference in August 2006, "Most of these guys [in the AIDS industry] don't care about stopping HIV/AIDS but just about managing the disease, keeping it going so they can continue to profit."

"It's a multi-billion dollar industry," he said. "Pharmaceuticals, condoms, counsellors, distributors, advertising executives, grants for fake human rights groups and celebrity status. If you have AIDS you can be a star if you promote their agenda. It's become a disease of opportunity. If AIDS stopped today there would be millions of people who would stop getting an income."

The Ugandan programme that emphasized chastity and continence in marriage saw Uganda's AIDS rate fall 75 per cent. A report published in the British Medical Journal said the government's campaign to reduce sexual promiscuity was the "equivalent to a highly effective vaccine".