Miss HIV launched all over...

Miss HIV explores the international collision of HIV/AIDS policies while following the journey of two HIV-positive women who enter the contest in Botswana. Filmed across Africa and the international AIDS conference in Toronto this explosive ethnographic film shares both sides of an ideology struggle. What is happening in Botswana, where half of all pregnant women have HIV, is set against Uganda who has experienced the largest reductions of new infections ever recorded. Unlike any film you've ever seen on AIDS, the story takes you backstage to the Miss HIV pageant and behind the curtain on what is really happening in the war against a virus that is now the leading killer of people under 60 in the world.

What is gradually revealed is, in part, the absurdity and hypocrisy of an ideology that is built upon the idea of radical human freedom, and that seeks to normalize HIV in order to erase "stigma", but that in turn stigmatizes anyone who even suggests abstinence or fidelity may be a solution to what is, after all, a sexually-transmitted disease.

As Martin Ssempa, the electric young Ugandan pastor who has been so instrumental in reducing HIV rates in his country, says, "You know what I find? I find that these guys have an irrational fear of abstinence. I mean they're paranoid. When you say the word abstinence they go 'Arraghagh! Stop!' And then, if you really want to get them riled up, say something about faithful in marriage. They want to pull their hair out!"

NewVision Awards Dr. Martin Ssempa

Harriette Onyalla
Kampala

Pastor Martin Ssempa, Jesse Okot , Francis Kigobe, Maria Baryamujura, Abdu Lutaaya, Musa Wakibi's son and Mwalimu Musheshe show off their certificates

SELF doubt. You cannot help following your heart anymore. You can no longer stand by and watch things continue the way they are. You cannot deny the fact that you do not exactly fall in the 'rich' bracket.You decide to start a project to change your community and many times you want to give up but your heart will not let you. And then someone comes along and says your efforts are, indeed, great. You are making a difference in your community. That was the mood in The New Vision conference room recently. Here were 10 Ugandans whom other Ugandans thought were making a difference in their communities in different ways. Francis Kigobe chose to build a library. Catherine Mwesigwa, The New Vision's Features Editor put it aptly: "Kigobe chose to donate to other young people an opportunity he did not have when he was young."

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Pastor Martin Ssempa of Makerere preaches sexual restraint and abstinence to young people. He says sex is a beautiful thing if it is done at the right time in the right place, that place is called marriage. "If you want a child to take their medicine without a fight, make it look beautiful that is why most syrups are pink, add there some sugar to make it sweet. That is why I am now a 'cool' guy. Young people now know abstaining from sex can be fun," he says.

Ssempa emerged second runner-up, taking home sh500,000. While parents and the youths at Makerere University, who flock Pastor Ssempa's Prime Time evenings every Saturday appreciate his message, some people, especially the donor community, think he should preach condoms as well. Not bad, one would say, but how do you preach condoms and abstinence using the same platform?

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Pro-gay activists arrested at AIDS meet

By Arthur Baguma
and Patrick Ogwang

GAY rights demonstrators beat security and sneaked into the venue of a global HIV/AIDS meeting at the Imperial Royale Hotel yesterday but ended up under Police arrest.

A woman and two men beat the security detail and sneaked with placards and a 67-page document soliciting for funding of their activities in Uganda. The activists, now detained at Jinja Road Police Station, were identified as Pepe Juliana Onzema, a freelance journalist, Usaam Mukwaaya and Valantini Katende.

Police spokesperson Simeo Nsubuga described them as intruders. “We are looking at a case of criminal trespass against them. They are not delegates and were not invited. They did not have accreditation cards.”

The suspects, he said, had placards calling on the participants to consider gays in the planning and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

“Gay Ugandans also need HIV prevention”, read one placard. Another said: “Since 1983 up to 2008 zero shillings to HIV prevention for gay Ugandans”.

Anti-gay campaigner Pastor Martin Sempa termed the incident as unfortunate. “These people are illegal. They are in a wrong place and a wrong forum. In Uganda, we don’t have a place for such people.”

Earlier, the demonstrators managed to distribute their document to some of the delegates, drawn from across the globe.
In the paper, the gays urged the donors and other funding agencies to help reduce the rate of infection and to alleviate the suffering of anyone infected and affected by AIDS.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda under the Penal Code and is categorized as an unnatural practice. Ethics minister Dr. Nsaba Buturo has condemned gay activities.

The document said the gays are organized under four organizations namely Freedom and Roam Uganda, Integrity Uganda, Icebreakers Uganda and Spectrum Initiatives Uganda.

The meeting opened on Tuesday and drew over 1,700 participants from over 70 countries. President Yoweri Museveni opened the conference. He called for a