Kampala — Our hearts beat so fast as we walk up to the eighth floor of Bugolobi Flats for the long awaited interview with one of Uganda's Aid's activists Dr. Dickson Opul. We knock at the door and a tall, giant gentle man wearing black shorts, and a brown T-shirt ushers me and the photographer in.

It's a Sunday and the atmosphere is homely, with some visitors in the house. We take to the black leather sofas, probably the only black item in the living room that is painted white with the floor tiled white.

"I am Dr Dickson Opul," he says and introduces the other two male visitors in the house as colleagues. "I am sorry I am dressed lousily, but this is how I want my Sunday's to be, just a home man," he says cheekily.

Prior to the interview I had heard about Opul as one of the many Ugandans who is an HIV/Aids activist but above all one of the few Ugandans who has addressed a US senate congress.

Opul comes from a very big family, the Opul sons and probably from one of the largest clans in Lango called Okabo.

He was born to catholic parents Solomon Opul (deceased) and Dorothy Agnes Arach in 1970. He is the first born with four sisters and four brothers. During Idi Amin's regime, Opul's family was exiled in Kenya where he spent the first 18 years of his life.

He then took his elementary education in Kisoko Primary School, Kiswa were he was head of debating club in P7, St Mary's College Kisubi and then Makerere University medical school where he was the chairman of Livingstone hall.

"Me I was born a leader and I always want to be a leader," he says. Opul says he grew up as a fighter but a quiet fighter. He always wanted to be the winner.

Once a sports man, he played javelin and broke his arm, played football and lost his tooth, was a good chess player but got a problem with his eyes, so basically Dr Opul has resigned from active sports.

"But I love chess very much except that my eyes can't stick to that chess board for long." At 34 Dr Opul is the managing director of Uganda Business Coalition on HIV/Aids (UBC), an organisation he set up in 2002 because of his interest in fighting against Aids.

"My turning point was in HSC, I was a great mathematician, but had an interest in space engineering, but I later did medicine out of curiosity. "While a third year student in medical school, after getting to know what I wanted to know about the human body I got bored of doing medicine."

He then felt like the challenge of medicine had diminished. "Probably I thought I knew it more than I had to and there was not much challenge but, I think the advent of preventing Aids created a new challenge to better understand life. So HIV/Aids renewed my interest in medicine."

Opul says that at UBC they manage programmes and develop designs that need to get the impact of HIV/Aids in our society. They also try to reduce the mortalities associated with Aids. As a director he does both the technical and managerial roles.

What inspired Dr. Opul to get into the field of prevention of Aids was in 1998 when he heard of people flocking to Masaka to swallow mouthfuls of sand with the hope of being cured. The loss of close family members inspired him even more to look into the problem in a much more detailed way.

Being a fighter of the unknown motivates him. "This is a new disease, which sparked my curiosity. What I know does not stimulate me than the unknown. To know it and to overcome it is a unique challenge for me to look into."

The doctor gave his very first talk on HIV/Aids when he was 19 when he was in Kyankwazi for military training in 1990-1991.

"Afande Walusimbi and Afande Orita, I forget their second names, asked us in a gathering who knew about the disease of Aids. Amidst hundreds of people I put up my hand and started explaining about HIV. The comment I made was how HIV can be transmitted.

"I then started to focus more on HIV/Aids while at university fourth year and that's the same year when I lost two brothers and an uncle to AIDS."

Opul has since then addressed many congresses on HIV/Aids. He addressed the US senate congress in 2003, the partisan congress in America, Business School of Harvard and other gatherings in so many other countries. He is a widely travelled man who finds Barcelona, Spain an interesting place to stay.

From that time Dr Opul got involved in organising various Aids conferences. He organised the first ever African Aids conference in 1995-1996 when he was the chairman of the medical Brain TRUST, a medical school programme at Makerere University.

One of the most memorable moments in his life is when he travelled to Rwanda to look for a job in 1998 in a place called Kyangungu. On returning, the place was attacked by rebels and everyone died. He had survived.

It's then that he got a job with Mark a big international Pharmaceutical to introduce antiretrovirals to people. He says there is a significant gap in addressing Aids in the private sector and a lot of focus is put on communities.

His goal at UBC is to provide adequate services to all the people. He now cares for more than 3,000 people in his UBC treatment centres since the year 2000 and wants to reach to 20,000 more people in 3-4 years. "We are blessed because the government of Uganda through the leadership of Museveni has created a good working environment."

As the interview is carried on Opul cuddles his five months baby girl Devine Dorothy Opul. Opul who is happily married to a beautiful lady, Caroline Asio Opul says that he wants to have as many as 12 children God willing.

"I love children and I want to be a good father," he says. He admires President Gorge W. Bush. "He is a world leader who is ruling at the time the world is at cross roads and also his decisive strong character and personal values on family life makes me admire him."

Besides his busy schedule, Opul is a family man, he spends all his Sundays at home after church. His daily schedules are always the same.

He wakes up at 6 a.m. to go jogging. He then does computer work from 7-9 a.m. He then drives to the office and is there till 5 p.m. After that, its back home where he watches movies, his favourites being adventure, from 7 to 8 p.m. He is also a man who likes to read. He normally reads from 10-12 a.m. then does office work from 12-3 a.m.

The doctor's advice to all is that there is a risk of Africans especially sub-Saharan Africa being depopulated or even completely wiped out due to HIV/Aids.

"The signs are there but prevention is in our society, we should adopt to change. Nations should set up a standard moral code of behaviour. People should also turn back to God. I am a Christian and Christianity is the centre of all good moral codes."