Frank In Uganda: Part 4
A friend of mine, Frank Ordway, has been working with the U of Washington and a few volunteers to help AIDS clinics in Africa migrate from paper-based systems to electronic ones. This series is made up of emails from Frank during his trip.
Parts: 1 2 3 4 5.
So today, Edith Mukisa, the Director of the clinic where I have been working met with the Ugandan Minister of Health to discuss the AIDS resources being provided by the Bush Administration through USAID. I realize my current situation is adding fuel to my fire but I have never been more disappointed and angry with our government nor more embarrassed to be from the States.
As you may know Uganda is the one AIDS “success” story in Africa, reducing the infection rate among young people from 30% to 6% in 10 years. The cornerstone of this success is sex education, family planning and condom distribution.
USAID refuses to give money to ANY program that has elements of sex education, family planning and condom distribution. Abstinence is the ONLY program that the prevention portion of Bush’s touted 15 billion dollar plan to save Africa from AIDS will fund. I have met reps here from USAID who are studying the Ugandan success story. They see the results. They have been to the clinics. They then had the gall to tell them to change the way the do everything or they do not get anything. This has nothing to do with results, helping people or stopping AIDS. It has everything to do with sating backward thinking Neanderthals and their congressional minions. If they really cared they would support the one model that is WORKING.
The role of condoms in Africa is not the same as that in the US. Think of it as penicillin, or better yet a flu shot. The rate of STDs here is so much higher than in the states. It is not because the whole continent is on some kind of cultural shore leave where everyone is sleeping around. There are no drugs here; there is little formal education, especially outside the cities. So disease spreads like wildfire. Condoms are the easiest, cheapest way to stem the spread of disease resulting from physical contact. The clinics I visit literally beg for drugs, and when they have them they do not give out appropriate doses. They have to cut pills in half or quarters just to give something out to those who need them. The clinic we are working with turns away people everyday. It is wrenching for the staff.
I sat through a presentation today at the clinic regarding STDs that included photos of the afflicted. Genital warts, in a mass the size of orange, literally CLOSING a young girl, and that was one of the least dramatic. I walked out of the session slightly numb and walked into a USAID guy visiting saying that the programs at the clinic would have to change completely if they were to get any money.
Edith politely declined. Now the money will go to US church operations. I am not talking about Catholic or Anglican hospitals and clinics. I am talking about Pat Robertson style evangelical missions that are quickly becoming AIDS resource centers (where were you last year?) in order to belly up to the trough and cram a bunch of tax money into their craw for feckless efforts on AIDS and lots of efforts on expanding their ranks.
You throw that in with all the security procedures in anticipation of Bush’s visit and I am profoundly saddened. I have no problem with security; hell I could have waltzed into this country with whatever I wanted so there are some issues. But watching the barking orders, behavior at the check points, disregard for local custom and culture it is clear to me that this trip is all about photo ops and being out of the country to avoid questions about the disintegration in Iraq and the sluggish US economy.
God it pisses me off.
