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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. |
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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.
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| UGANDA
Capital: Kampala.
Area: Uganda is just slightly smaller
than Oregon, 241,038 square km. It has been called
"the Pearl of Africa" and is home to Lake
Victoria, the source of the Nile. Uganda is bounded
by Kenya to the east, Sudan to the north, Democratic
Republic of Congo (Zaire) to the west and Rwanda and
Tanzania to the south.
Climate: Generally warm throughout
the year although nights and areas at higher altitudes
can be cool. March to May and September to November
are rainy seasons. The dry seasons are between December
and February and June to August with the north of
the country substantially drier than the south.
PEOPLE
Infant mortality: 94 per 1,000 live births.
Maternal mortality: 1,100 per 100,000 live births.
Life expectancy: 52 years.
Illiteracy: 21 percent male, 41 percent female above
15 years.
Access to safe water: 50 percent (2002).
Percent of population aged 0-14: 50%;
Percent of population over age 65: 2.2%.
Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2002, Reuters
report, CIA factbook, 2006.
Population: 28.1 million (2005)Ethnic groups: The largest tribe is
the Buganda, 4.2 million, who live around and west
of the capital Kampala. Other Bantu tribes - Basoga,
Banyankole, Batooro and Banyoro - live in the south
and west. The north and east are home to Nilotic tribes
including Acholi, Langi, Iteso and Karamojong.
Religion: Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant
33%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 18%. Most Protestants
are affiliated with Church of Uganda (Anglican Communion).
Currency: Ugandan Shilling, approximately
1750 per US dollar. Inflation rate: 9.7% annually. Health: Hepatitis A, polio,
tetanus, typhoid immunization recommended, along with malaria prophylaxis. Yellow fever immunization required.
Diphtheria, hepatitis B and meningitis immunization
recommended in some circumstances, seek further advice.
Languages: National language, English,
used in schools and courts of law. Also, Swahili,
Bantu, Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Luganda.
Source: State of World Population
2002, and CIA World Factbook, 2006.
HISTORY
Britain set up the Uganda protectorate in 1894 and
the country became independent as a federation of
five tribal states in 1962. Prime Minister Obote seized
power in 1966, and Uganda became a republic with Obote
as president in 1967.
Army commander Idi Amin deposed Obote
in 1971 at the start of an eight-year reign of terror
that killed between 300,000 and 500,000 people. He
expelled 70,000 people of Asian origin in 1972 and
distributed their businesses and industries to his
cronies. When Amin invaded Tanzania in 1978, President
Julius Nyerere sent his army, alongside Ugandan exiles,
into Uganda to topple him. Amin fled into exile in
April 1979. Two presidents, Yusuf Lule and Godfrey
Binaisa, failed to win widespread support. Obote led
his Uganda People's Congress party to victory in 1980.
Opposition parties said the elections were rigged
and several groups went back to the bush to fight
a civil war.
Obote was deposed, and fled into exile
in Zambia. The rebel National Resistance Army (NRA)
of former defence minister Yoweri Museveni marched
into Kampala in January 1986 and he became president
at the head of the National Resistance Movement, which
restored order in most of Uganda.
Museveni won the presidential elections
on May 1996 by a landslide, and was re-elected again
in 2001 and 2006. A new constitution, written by a commission,
was promulgated in October 1995 and amended in 2005.
In August 1998, a rebel insurgency
began in the east of neighbouring Democratic Republic
of the Congo. Uganda and Rwanda admitted to backing
the rebels trying to overthrow President Laurent Kabila.
Uganda has legislated quotas for women and almost
20 percent of the parliament is female. One-third
of local councils seats must go to women, by law.
Uganda was the only sub-Saharan African
country to have subdued a major HIV/AIDS epidemic.
UNAIDS reported that adult HIV rates continued to
fall -- from 8.3% at the end of 1999 to 5% at the
end of 2001, to 4.1% in 2003. An estimated 880,000 children were
orphaned by AIDS by the end of 2002.
Violence kept about 1.6-2 million Ugandans
internally displaced, including
at least 50,000 who were newly uprooted that year.
About 20,000 Ugandans were refugees, with around 10,000
in Democratic Republic of the Congo, 5,000 in Sudan
and 5,000 in Kenya.
Uganda was host to approximately 175,000
refugees at the end of 2001. About 150,000 were from
Sudan, with smaller numbers from Rwanda, Democratic
Republic of the Congo and Somalia.
Museveni and Kabila signed an agreement
in early September 2002, committing Uganda to withdrawing
its remaining troops from the neighbouring Demcratic
Republic of the Congo. Congo, in return, pledged to
take action against rebels based in the east of the
huge, mineral-rich country who are hostile to the
Kampala government.
In July 2003, Uganda asked Sudan to
punish members of the Sudanese army who it says have
been providing arms to the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA), which is fighting to topple the government.
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),
which has waged a war in northern Uganda
since 1987, wants to overthrow the government and
rule Uganda by the biblical Ten Commandments. It
maims villagers and kidnaps
children to use as sex slaves and soldiers.
Source: Freedom in the World 2001-2002,
Reuters reports, UNAIDS Fact Sheet 2002(www.unaids.org),
U.S. Committee for Refugees (www.refugees.org)
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