KAMPALA, Uganda (dpa) – Each Sunday, a large number of young people in Uganda are tuned in to a new radio programme, their mobile telephones primed for action.
The “Straight Talk” show encourages them to ring up and leave recorded messages on topics like the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome AIDS, overcoming sex-related problems and the phenomenon of aging male lovers preying on schoolgirls.Testimony aired so far includes that of young female pupils complaining about being nagged by peers who jeer at them for remaining virgin. The taunters say they will not find husbands or be able to bear children.In soothing tones counsellors advise the worried to remain firm about consent until they become of age and also to report their tormentors to school authorities.Sometimes a problem is too serious to be dealt with and messages which tell of serious encounters like rape are not publicly narrated but edited out and the affected person invited in for some private counselling.Sociologists and medical staff are worried that, if not checked, the AIDS scourge sweeping Uganda will wipe out a generation. They believe the recorded messages from youths across the country are an important weapon in the battle against the disease.Uganda is one of the world’s worst-affected countries in the global AIDS epidemic since its first victim was diagnosed in 1983 in a small lakeshore village in the south western region.“Our mission is to keep adolescents safe and we equip them with lifesaving skills,” said Betty Kagoro an official with the Kampala- based Straight Talk Radio Foundation.Most of the problems are typical of the puberty stage; many young girls are ignorant about menstruation, others say they do not know how to use condoms and some male respondents think their penises are either too big or too small to fit into the sheaths.Social workers believe young people are being propelled into the changing world with little in the way of guidance, physical or moral. Their parents and close relatives are often too busy with other chores to help out and in many cases may be dead.The break-up, following on from the traditional African family extended system, has further heightened problems for the growing population.“Young people have problems about becoming adolescents. Some are even frightened when their voices change, when they experience sudden sexual desires or when they menstruate.Discussing sexually-related matters is still taboo in traditional Uganda “and so we have come in to bridge the gap,” Kagoro told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.Another Straight Talk Radio worker recalled: “One young woman said she had a ‘problem’ of small breasts and she turned to a friend who advised her to engage in sex so that the breasts grow bigger. Before she made the move, we told her that it is normal to have small breasts and that moving into sexual intercourse will expose her to AIDS.”An official with the monitoring and evaluation section of Straight Talk radio, which started its mission three years ago, said the organisation has yet to conduct a survey to find out just how many young people listen to its programme. It is aired for 30 minutes each Sunday on at least seven FM stations in English and the Luo language.However, 280,000 free copies of its publications arm, Young Talk are distributed every month to secondary and primary schools and tertiary institutions.The pamphlet includes sex-education material, question and answer interviews and guidelines on how to avoid sexually-transmitted infections. Another 14,000 other copies are inserted in a mass circulation government paper.According to Professor John Rwomushana, coordinator for the state managed and donor-funded Uganda Aids Commission UAC, some 800,000 people have so far died of AIDS-related infections in Uganda since 1983. Another 1.44 million others are carriers of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.More than 100,000 other people in the country also display symptoms of full-blown AIDS, said Rwomushana.The East African nation has one of the most aggressive AIDS control programmes on the continent, running a multi-million dollar, multi-sectoral approach for AIDS control.The battle against the disease, for which there is still no cure, requires openness about the dangers and encouragement for HIV- testing, caring for the sick and catering for children orphaned by AIDS.According to Rwomushana, the measures are yielding positive results: “The infection rate of HIV-AIDS has dropped from 19 percent ten years ago to the current 9 percent. Every section of society right from the top political leadership was made to contribute to the battle against AIDS,” he said.Kagoro of the Straight Talk Foundation admits that the limited budget does not allow the radio programmes to be aired in the various languages in multilingual Uganda.“Due to limited funds, we cannot pass messages in many languages. It’s difficult to even know whether what we teach is actually being put into practice. We have conservatives too although some are beginning to realise the importance of sex education,” she told dpa.UGANDA – 1999 STATS
- Population : 21.5 million
- Surface area (1997): 241.0 thousand sq. km
- Population per sq. km (1997): 101.8
- Population growth : 2.7 %
- Life expectancy (1998): 42 years
- Population below national poverty line : ..
- GNP per capita : 320 US$
- GDP : 6.3 billion US$
