Uganda: The Situation

Uganda, a developing nation in East Africa, faces a staggering social and economic crisis as its 1.4 million adults with HIV begin to die. Sixty percent are women. In addition, there are nearly 150,000 HIV+ children under twelve. An entire generation...those in the middle years...is dying. This is the economically productive generation, and their death leaves the very young and the very old alone to fend for themselves. Uganda has wrought a miracle in reducing AIDS infection, going from 21% of the population infected to just 6% infected in just ten years. This is great news. However, those infected in the mid 1990's are dying now, and leaving so many children orphans with no safety net at all. Uganda does not allow international adoption except in very specific circumstances, there are few orphanages except in large cities, and the kinship system is strained and overburdened. In Soroti, the nearest town to our village, many miles away, there is one hospital. There are 22,000 Ugandans for every doctor available to see them...even if they had money to seek medical care and pay for the transportation to the hospital. For most, there are just neat rows of graves in front of the homes. The AIDS epidemic has added an estimated 1.8 million orphans to a total already inflated by war and civil strife. By 2010, a projected 2.1 million orphans will have limited or no access to health care, education, and social services. These children suffer the trauma of caring for one or more sick family members; that stress is often exaggerated by the stigma they encounter in society. The first AIDS case appeared in Uganda in 1982. Twenty years later, the life expectancy in Uganda dropped from 54 years to 43. In spite of exemplary AIDS awareness programs, Ugandans face a daunting future and innumerable challenges as the epidemic rolls on. In addition to AIDS, malaria, TB and dysentery threaten the lives of its residents. And, in our village, there is also the ever present threat of rebel activity, with the Lord's Resistance Army striking out from the Sudanese border. One such crisis came at the end of June 2003, when thirty schoolgirls from Soroti were kidnapped as "wives" for the rebels, and many boys were abducted for use as soldiers. Most of these children, aged 13-17, were never found. Although the government forces moved into Serere in August 2003 to train young people to fight the rebels, Soroti continued in a state of unrest, with hundreds of thousands internally displaced until very recently.