World Vision launches HIV/AIDS prevention initiative at Uganda Wildlife Authority

By Charlotte Muhwezi

“Together we should stand to save the children of Africa from HIV/AIDS” says Phily Lutaya (RIP). Twenty seven years later, the legacy of Phily Lutaya, the first Ugandan to give a human face to HIV/AIDS still lives on.

The fight against HIV/AIDS has become stronger over the years and many advocates against this killer disease have risen up to stop the scourge. The HIV/AIDS and Health initiatives in the workplaces activity (HIWA) is one of the many projects that have joined the race of fighting against HIV/AIDS. This project is sponsored by USAID and aims at pushing for Health initiatives in workplaces.

On 12th July 2016, this project launched the continuous support it has been giving to different uniformed services like the police, army, security guards and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) staff. During the launch at the UWA offices, different services ranging from HIV/AIDS testing and counseling, health education, family planning education, blood pressure measurement among other services were given to the staff of UWA.

The Acting Executive Director of UWA, Ms Nightingale Mirembe Sennoga, thanked World Vision for extending these services to their staff at the head office in Kampala as well as the different National parks across the country mainly Queen Elizabeth and Murchison falls National park. She acknowledged the fact that the different people in all these areas now appreciate the importance of living healthy lives and this has led to a positive behavioral change in their everyday lives thus productivity at their work.

The HIWA Chief of party Erasmus Tanga said the access to health services in rural places where the UWA staff stay is very low so it was important that these services are taken closer to them. He further mentioned that the project came to ensure that different health services are brought nearer addressing challenges of HIV and health. The services that had so far been given to uniformed staff in the different work places include; care and treatment, HIV testing/counseling, maternal and child care, nutrition, family planning, male circumcision and behavior change awareness among others.

At the function too, was Gilbert Kamanga the National director of World Vision Uganda. He said the HIWA project takes care of the uniformed forces because security takes care of property and lives as UWA takes care of the wildlife and so HIWA chose to give back. He urged UWA to continue taking care of its staff by maximizing the benefits of the HIWA programs as they plan to sign an MoU soon. He thanked USAID for sponsoring the program as well as the other partners like RTI, TASO, Eco Trust, TMC group and UHMG for being part of the good cause.

As the late Phily Lutaya said, if we all joined hands in fighting HIV/AIDS, we would wipe it out of Uganda and Africa at large.