Grace Natabaalo
15 March 2006
Kampala — THE Aids Healthcare Foundation, the largest Aids organisation in the USA, yesterday donated one million condoms to Uganda.
The AHF Vice President, Mr Peter Reis, handed the condoms to the Director General of Health Services, Dr Sam Zaramba, at function in Kampala.
Dr Bernard Okongo, the AHF Regional Bureau Chief in Africa, said the donation was worth $25,000 (about Shs45 million).
Reis commended the ministry for their work in trying to curb Aids in Uganda and said they would continue supporting the cause.
"As we continue to provide our services to people, we also continue to pass on the message of prevention. We as AHF are committed to what we are doing," Okongo said.
Zaramba commended AHF for supporting one of the country's strategies to fight against Aids.
"We are very happy that you have come and supported our ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful and Condoms) strategy by supporting element 'C' of the strategy," said Zaramba.
He encouraged Ugandans to go for Aids counselling and testing, saying it should be a parcel for everyone.
He said the ministry has sufficient free condoms and people should endeavour to use them.
"We now have sufficient quality condoms, they are available and people should come and use them," Zaramba said.
Ms Martha Kibirige, the Coordinator of the Condom Unit at the ministry said there was no condom shortage in the country.
"Ugandans use at least five million condoms per month which brings it to around 60 million condoms per year," she said. "The condom testing machine is now available in Uganda to test the quality."
The condoms will be distributed free of charge in parts of the country where Uganda Cares operates.
The AHF operates free Aids treatment clinics worldwide including 10 in Uganda.
The Ministry of Health and Uganda Cares, an NGO, run the clinics in Uganda.
They are in the districts of Kampala, Masaka, Soroti, Mpigi, Mbale, and Rakai. Uganda Cares provides treatment to 13, 000 people living with Aids patients of which 6000 are on ARV treatment. Of these, 80% are women and 5% are children.
In 2005, there was severe scarcity of condoms in the country. It was caused by a nationwide recall of the condoms distributed in health clinics, due to concerns about their quality by the government.
Although tests showed that there was nothing wrong with the condoms, the government said that public confidence in the brand had been badly dented, so they would not redistribute them.
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