KAMPALA, Uganda -- The personal ad started out sweet and practical: "I'm a kind, male Ugandan engineer." But then the tone switched to, well, honest: "I am HIV positive and looking for a single lady aged 28 to 35 who is a diploma holder and is also HIV positive."
On the "love connection" page of Uganda's lusty tabloid the Red Pepper, the personals feature the usual searches for a partner of the right height and with a good job. But in Uganda, they also include information about HIV status and the willingness of potential romantic partners to take a blood test together. "I'm a male -- aged 32, successful owner of many cattle, looking for a lady ready to take a blood test."
University students Lameck Muwanga, left, Mary Tibahkierwayo, and Harriet Aanyu Hellen, applaud openness policy.
(Candice Miranda -- The Washington Post)
|
|
In sub-Saharan Africa, where 26.3 million people are HIV-positive, including your status in a personal ad is a bold move that is being lauded by Ugandan health professionals and government officials as a way to combat the stigmatization of sufferers of the disease.
"Our world has changed. People want to know each other's HIV status. We use a message that in this country has led to tremendous achievements in the fight against AIDS," said Arinaitwe Rugyendu, deputy editor of the Red Pepper. "We are a poor country and can't always afford the life-saving drugs that others can to fight the disease. The best thing is to talk about prevention. You can't beat something like AIDS by being in denial or being quiet about sex."
The Red Pepper, a semiweekly tabloid, has generated controversy with its lewd photographs, sex-infused fiction and a column with drawings and photos titled "The Rear End." But it has also been a popular vehicle for talking openly about sex, HIV and AIDS. The paper runs a line across the top of every page that reads, "Notice: Avoid HIV/AIDS: Insist on CONDOMS or no SEX. The life you save might be your own."
The paper runs about 50 personals twice a week, and many mention HIV status or the need for a blood test, Rugyendu said. In the last year, radio stations and dating services have followed the Red Pepper's lead, allowing people to announce their status.
"The HIV personal, you could call it, is something that is stunning to see in Africa," said Joseph Beyanga, production coordinator for the Monitor FM radio station in Kampala, the capital.
In December, Beyanga, a hip 25-year-old, won the OneWorld/MTV Staying Alive global audio competition, with a radio announcement that called for eliminating discrimination against people with HIV or AIDS. His radio announcement is being aired in neighboring Kenya and Tanzania, where HIV is called "the mysterious disease."
"If you look back to even the 1990s in Uganda, we had the same problem," said Beyanga, a thin, energetic man, as he sat in an air-conditioned radio studio. "You won't want to touch the cup a person with HIV had or cross the road they crossed. In Uganda, we have moved ahead. But other parts of Africa still have work to do."
Part of the reason for Uganda's openness is that the country was one of the first in Africa to face an explosion of AIDS.
The first AIDS case was identified in Uganda in 1982 along the shores of Lake Victoria. Because most people understood the disease in superstitious terms, the epidemic progressed rapidly, with some areas seeing 30 percent of the population infected just 10 years later.
The government responded in 1986 by launching an aggressive public relations drive against HIV and AIDS. Primary schools and health centers touted the "ABC or D" (abstain, be faithful, use condoms or die) campaign, and public figures from singers to politicians acknowledged having the disease.
While sub-Saharan Africa is home to 70 percent of the world's HIV and AIDS patients, and in some countries at least one in three adults is HIV-positive, Uganda's HIV infection rate has plummeted from 30 percent to 5 percent in slightly more than a decade. At the same time, the taboo against talking about HIV and AIDS has disappeared in the country. Even young schoolchildren joke that they want to know each other's status.
Sanyu Nkiinzi, a popular radio announcer for Straight Talk, a 10-year-old nongovernmental group that is one of the country's most successful promoters of anti-AIDS initiatives, said the personal ads also show that Ugandans are aware of the importance of not infecting potential partners.
"It's so positive because it means that people are taking responsibility for something they used to ignore," said Nkiinzi, looking over a crowd of Kampala's social glitterati in an upscale restaurant. "It just shows how far any society can come."
On the rolling green campus of Kampala's Makerere University, a group of students gathered over grilled corn on the cob and chatted about their willingness to be open.
"Relatives in other countries still think AIDS is caused by being bewitched," said laughed Lameck Muwanga, 22, an environmental science student, laughing. He who said he would place an ad in the Red Pepper saying he would be willing to take an HIV-AIDS test. "I think it would be a good way to start a trustworthy relationship, that's for sure."
