{UAH} GIVING UGANDA A BAD RAP: Faking HIV for funds

Faking HIV for funds

 BY BULELWA DAYIMANI | March 20, 2014

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According to a non-profit organisation, some Ugandans have resorted to pretending to be HIV-positive in order to benefit from aid agencies

After learning that Plan Uganda was giving support to HIV victims, 111 HIV-negative people rushed to the health facility with fake HIV results from private clinics to register for benefits, co-ordinator of the  National Forum for People Living with HIV Networks in Uganda (NAFOPHANU) Judith Hatoho told The Observer.

The organisation reports that some Ugandans are even registering their children as orphans whose parents died from HIV/Aids.

Uganda has been struggling to get aid after several major aid organisations decided to redirect their funds in the wake of  the President Yoweri Museveni’s passing of a number of draconian anti-gay laws.

Under the new laws any person who is found to have been involved in a homosexual act can be jailed for life. Last month the World Bank announced it was postponing a $90-million ( (R985-million) aid package that was going to be used to finance improvements to Uganda’s health system.

A spokesman for the World Bank said: “We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected.”

A few weeks ago the European Union announced it was imposing sanctions on those in government who had been responsible for passing the laws. While the sanctions will prevent some of the country’s leaders from getting visas, the EU has said it would not suspend aid into the country.

Museveni has remained defiant: “Outsiders cannot dictate to us, this is our country,” he said. “I advise friends from the West not to make this an issue, because if they make it an issue the more they will lose.

“If the West does not want to work with us because of homosexuals, then we have enough space to ourselves here,” the Ugandan president said in a statement.

Sources: Observer, Reuters, BBC

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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