Situated in East Africa, Uganda is a country constrained by its geography, landlocked by the troubled nations of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. Since the 1980’s, Uganda has rebounded from the abyss of civil war, economic catastrophe and human rights abuses, to become relatively stable.
With approximately 30 million inhabitants, and a growth rate at about 3.2 per cent, Uganda has one of the fastest growing populations in the world. Today, 31 per cent of the population are living in poverty, a rate which is indisputably higher in rural areas and Northern and Eastern Uganda.
Political History
Uganda was deeply destabilised throughout the Obote and Amin eras, a period in which Uganda became notorious for its human rights abuses. Since becoming president in 1986, Yoweri Museveni has restored relative stability through democratic reforms, allowing the country to claw its way out of devastation. However, Uganda still remains hamstrung by the sheer number of people suffering extreme poverty, difficult geography and climate, the burden of diseases such as malaria, TB and AIDS, the weight of international debt and continuing struggles with corruption.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has perpetrated violence in the North for nearly two decades, carrying out the abduction of approximately 20 000 children during this time. However, the prospect of peace is much closer than ever before, with the signing of a truce in 2006 between the Ugandan Government and the LRA.
HIV/AIDS in Uganda – Children and Women
Uganda is often held up as a model for Africa in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Strong government leadership and effective public education campaigns all contributed to a decline in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the 1990s. However the success of Uganda’s story should not detract from the devastating consequences that AIDS continues to have across the country- personally, socially and economically. As a result of the disease, Uganda’s labour force has significantly depleted, agricultural output and food security has been reduced, and educational and health services have weakened.
There are currently an estimated 1 million people living with HIV in Uganda (6.5 per cent of the total population) and in the last decade there have been over 1.8 million AIDS related deaths. Approximately 20 000 babies are infected by HIV annually through mother-to-child transmission. Nearly half of the estimated 2 million orphans in Uganda are orphaned due to AIDS, with the total expected to rise to 3.5 million by 2010.
It is feared that HIV prevalence in Uganda may be rising again, which could be attributed to the government’s recent emphasis on abstinence-based HIV prevention programmes over condom distribution and promotion. It has also been suggested that antiretroviral drugs have changed the perception of AIDS from a death sentence to a treatable, manageable disease; this may have reduced the fear surrounding HIV, and in turn have led to an increase in risky behavior.
Luweero Region, and Kiwoko Hosptial
The Kiwoko Hospital, The ISIS Foundation’s key partner organisation within Uganda, is based just outside of Kiwoko Town in the Luwero region, a drive of about an hour and a half north of Kampala. During the 1980s, the Luweero Region was the epicenter of Uganda’s civil war with hundreds of thousands of people being massacred under Amin; it suffered the most in a country which was suffering terribly. The area was devastated, with almost all local infrastructure being destroyed and much of the remaining population fleeing. Today, around half a million people live in the Luwero district, involved mainly in agriculture, and the region remains one of the poorest in Uganda.
Kiwoko Hospital faces huge challenges in dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Around 70% of bed-ridden patients are HIV positive. And although testing for HIV is critical, the social stigma and cultural issues that result from a positive diagnosis mean that many people avoid testing until very late in the progress of the disease.
