China Daily Examines Campaign Against Cross-Generational Sex In Uganda To Fight Spread Of HIV Among Girls, Women

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 13 Jun 2008 - 9:00 PST

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China Daily on Wednesday examined a campaign against cross-generational sex in Uganda that aims to fight the spread of HIV among girls and women. The campaign, called "Go-Getters," was launched in 2003 and is widespread among many Ugandan schools and universities, according to China Daily. The campaign was launched in response to "shocking statistics that show HIV prevalence in Uganda is five times higher in girls aged 15 to 19 than in the boys the same age," according to program materials.

As part of efforts to curb cross-generational sex, posters have been placed around busy areas in Kampala, Uganda, and at universities. One poster that pictures an older man asked, "Would you let this man be with your teenage daughter?" Another poster, titled "Something for Something Love," shows a man in police custody while a pregnant girl hands her mother a cell phone that the man gave her for sex, China Daily reports.

Helen Mukiibi, deputy news editor of Uganda's New Vision, said, "We know that some rich men in Uganda have HIV/AIDS and [that] many young girls have been infected because they willingly became mistresses of these men, many of whom are married." Peter Mugyenyi, chief of Kampala's Joint Clinical Research Centre, said, "Only a low percentage of women [in Uganda] have jobs, and most women can't control money in their households because they don't work." He added, "Women should be more independent, and it will be a way to stop cross-generational sex" (Li, China Daily, 6/11).

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