Community-Wide Efforts Most Effective

More Research on ABC Program in Uganda

A quote in my last posting affixed the credit for a broad reduction in Uganda HIV/AIDS cases in the 90’s to “a fair mix of factors built along partnership efforts, including families and the broader civil society movement.” There has long been speculation that abstinence, or any sex education message for that matter, is most effective if it originates from many different sources. In other words, people need to hear the message in school, on the playground, at the work site, along the highway, from their parents and peers….

Several African countries took–and are taking–this approach in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. Take a look at these photos from the Averting HIV and AIDS web site at www.avert.org.

HIV education took place in the classroom.

Here’s a sign promoting abstinence at a Uganda elementary school.

Here’s a poster, funded by the government of Zambia, encouraging abstinence.

And this is a photo of HIV educators visiting a farm in South Africa.

Words from Women with HIV/AIDS

More Research on the ABC Program in Uganda

It is quite uncommon to find a measured and unemotional assessment of any program designed to decrease teen pregnancy rates and HIV/AIDS. Those who view abstinence as the only acceptable cure, claim that the ABC approach (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms for high-risk groups), which appears to have had such staggering success in Uganda, is due mostly to the A and B. On the other hand, those who believe Condoms to be the key, discount the power of the Abstinence message as a Western concept that is ill-fitted for Africa.

However, this statement, issued by the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS, actually provides some balance to the debate. “This clearly illustrates that a fair mix of factors built a long partnership efforts, including families and the broader civil society movement were responsible for the success. When looking for the answer therefore one does not need to look for an either-or solution.” (Condoms vs. Abstinence As HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategies in Uganda)

It is clear that the answer for the raging AIDS epidemic in Africa and rampant STDs in American teens is not a simple one. It certainly warrants unemotional and truth-focused research.

Research Proposal: ABC in Africa

The lab is Uganda. The disease is AIDS. A successful treatment is ABC: Abstain, Be faithful, or at last resort, use a Condom.

Ridiculed by the world for adopting a social engineering experiment that suggested that people might actually choose to abstain from sex, stay faithful to their partner and for high-risk groups, use a condom, Uganda saw results that left the healthcare world with mouths agape. According to the BBC, the number of HIV cases in Uganda dropped by 70% in the 1990’s.

Despite overwhelming evidence, there remain critics who refuse to let the facts persuade their ideology. As one convinced that teaching sexual abstinence until marriage in our public schools can produce teens who are happier, healthier and more academically successful, I will spend the next few weeks researching the facts as both sides see them and posting what I find as forthrightly as possible.