Uganda: bishop launches AIDS campaign

The Bishop of Lugazi Catholic Diocese, Dr. Matthias Ssekamanya, has started an aggressive campaign against teenage pregnancies and HIV/Aids among students. Speaking at St Lawrence Ssonde School near Namugongo on Sunday, where he commissioned a girls' dormitory and a school's prefect council, Bishop Ssekamanya urged school administrators to groom students who are spiritually and intellectually mature. "It is absurd that we are losing potential future leaders when in most African states we still lack effective leaders who are God -loving and patriotic. Unless we get leaders with those qualities we shall continue to be at the mercy of egoistic leaders," he said. The prelate said that he will begin supplying schools with videotapes on the two topics and lamented that the nation was losing many of its potential leaders because of teenage pregnancies, HIV/AIDS and drug addiction. Meanwhile BBC reported that about 20,000 school children marched through the northern Ugandan town of Kitgum, demanding an end to rebel abductions. The demonstration was timed to coincide with a visit to the area by the Pope's special envoy, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. "We are suffering because our brothers and sisters who are in the bush are coming to us and abducting us," said 12-year-old Ananna Cinerela. One of the organisers of the march, Bishop Baker Ochola, said that the children were addressing their message to the Ugandan Government, the LRA, the international community and "all peace-loving people in the world" . Source: CISA quoting The New Vision