by Hilary White
KAMPALA, October 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com, with files from New Vision) – The wife of the Ugandan president, Janet Museveni, has congratulated over 13,000 students for embracing chastity at a Kampala rally sponsored by the government as part of its AIDS prevention program.
Mrs. Museveni chastised the international movement to flood the African nations with condoms and encourage young people to have sex outside of marriage. “We are not against condoms but this is not a message for the young children. As a mother, I cannot advise my child to use condoms,” she said.
Museveni said, “Parents agree with me on this, but there are people who came here and fought our campaigns of abstinence and being faithful to one partner. They used money and shut down some people and confused others. I persisted and Ugandans are seeing the fruits.”
Her remarks came at a convention for young people that featured educational conferences, poems, plays and dances, making the connection between premarital sex and the spread of AIDS.
Uganda has been one of the few countries in Africa to have significantly reduced its rate of HIV/AIDS after it implemented a homegrown program of abstinence training for young people. The Ugandan program, started by churches in this overwhelmingly Christian nation, was joined by the government and is being spread to other countries. This, despite heavy pressure for a condoms priority approach by international NGO’s.
13,564 of the 17,612 young people from 123 schools in attendance made a public commitment to chastity in the program that Museveni said was about to go nationwide.
The convention was the culmination of a four month training program for students called the “No Apologies Abstinence Training Curriculum,” that is available in seven districts of Uganda.
Uganda’s health minister, Dr. Stephen Malinga, also praised the youth at the rally admonishing them not to listen to the pressure to engage in sexual relations outside of marriage.
“Be careful about being encouraged to use condoms, those are selling gimmicks,” Malinga said.
“Condoms have quite a significant failure rate, they are not completely effective. Let nobody tell you young people about condoms and AIDS. Don’t be victims of marketing. Let nobody give you a present of condoms during Christmas,” he said.