allAfrica.com: Uganda: Aids On the Rise Among School Girls (Page 1 of 1)

Lack of sex education in various schools across the country has resulted into increased levels of HIV/Aids infections among school girls, a new survey has shown.

Describing the new threat as "serious", a survey done by Concern for Children and Women Empowerment (Cofcawe), a non-governmental organisation working in the country shows that many school girls were increasingly getting infected by the dreaded HIV/Aids because they are not offered sex education before they become sexually active.

The study also noted that conventional methods of sexual stimulation among school girls to stretch their labials have increased HIV/Aids and STDS among teenage girls.

"When they do this mass stimulation of their sexuality the end results are always dangerous and a number of school girls have contracted the virus in the process," reads part of the report.

In an interview with Saturday Monitor, Cofcowe's executive director Catherine Othieno said school girls in the country are "clearly having sex as early as 11 years and testing the borderlines with their sexual conduct."

Ms Othieno noted that the traditional sexual awakening is happening through a booming sex workers' industry that is very dangerous for young girls.

She said the problem is compounded by the fact that under-age girls are faced with a lot of peer pressure, increased use of social networking, and explicit content on the Internet, which are contributing factors to the rise in sexuality and newfound freedom among school adolescents.

The survey, a copy circulated to Members of Parliament last week reads, "Being a teen is not always easy. Teens are often faced with very important and difficult decisions. One such decision is whether or not to have sex. Safer sex, teens and HIV, and abstinence are all things that weigh heavily on the mind of a teenager."

The survey adds that while many teens want to say "no" to sex, peer pressure, a desire to look "cool" or a lack of assertiveness prevents them from doing so. For those wanting to say "no" but are having problems doing so, there are ways for teens to say "no" to sex.

Ms Othieno said according to the research made in schools at Gombe and Busukuma sub-counties in Wakiso District, many young girls especially in primary and secondary schools were using risky methods in a bid to stimulate their sexuality.

"When they do this mass stimulation, they don't have water to wash their hands and they transfer infected fluids from one another yet some of these girls were born with HIV/Aids," Ms Othieno said.

"There is a need to intensify sex education in schools if we are to save hundreds of young girls facing the deadly disease."

According to the findings , school girls between 15 to 17 are the highest culprit of "mass pulling", rhetoric users and are "expressing their sexuality in erotic ways for the whole world to see." However, sex education in Wakiso and indeed in the country is "badly lacking."

Although there is a lot to learn from Uganda's comprehensive and timely campaign against the AIDS epidemic, emphasising Uganda's success story must not detract from the devastating consequences that AIDS continues to have across the country personally, socially and economically.

There are currently an estimated 940,000 people living with HIV in Uganda, and more than 1.2 million children who have been orphaned by AIDS.

In areas under review, researchers found out that many villages witnessed high numbers of deaths each month, houses were standing empty, funerals were frequent and grandparents were increasingly becoming caretakers for their orphaned grandchildren.

According to Ms Othieno, the fact that HIV/Aids has no cure, parents should take a leading role to sensitise their children about the existence of the condition especially the young girls whose sexuality has become part of the problem.

Although it is thought that the government's ABC prevention campaign was partly responsible for the decline in prevalence, new findings show that schools in Buganda and Ankole were at risk of contracting HIV/Aids as they arouse their sexuality.

Cofcawe works to break down the stigma associated with AIDS, and encourage a frank and honest discussion of sexual subjects that were considered a taboo in some cultures and schools.

The sheer scale of the HIV epidemic in Uganda is also thought to have been a major driver of behaviour change and the reduction in the number of new infections.

The epidemic was very visible in the 1990s when the majority of Ugandans knew somebody who had died from AIDS and in 1995, 91 per cent of Ugandan men and 86 per cent of women knew someone who was HIV positive.

Youth MP for Northern Uganda Denis Obua told Saturday Monitor the report gives an insight into what he described as a silent scourge and a new threat to the future generation.

"We want the government to be proactive and the school administrators should make sure that sex education takes shape in our schools across the country," Mr Obua said.

"We cannot sit back when our children are getting HIV/Aids in the process something urgent must be done to contain the crisis."

MPs Ahbar Godi, Arua Municipality, Kawempe South MP Ssebuliba Mutumba and Simon Oyet (FDC, Nwoya) demanded that the government institutes an independent investigation into allegations that more schoolgirls were getting HIV/Aids due to lack of seriousness on the government part to emphasise sex education in schools.

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