Search

Ironically, the plague of AIDS is having one positive effect in Uganda, where 18 percent of the adult population may be infected with HIV. It is prompting women to confront […]

Women's organizations in Uganda and Tanzania suggest ways of uniting in societies that are increasingly divided along sectarian lines. Women from different backgrounds are motivated by the common goal of social inclusion. Besides, economic necessity has made women the primary wage-earners in many households. These developments have prompted women to seek ways of utilizing their strength without relying on the state. Formal and informal women's organizations suggest possibilities for institutional reform. The study also examines the concept of civil society in a non-Western context.

A comparison of written and printed records, interviews, tape recordings and newspaper reports on socio-religious movements reveals the need to use different approaches in analyzing socio-religious rural movements of the past and the present. Few incidents in Mexico in 1890 and in Uganda in the late 1980s involve claims by young women to possess divine power and heavenly mandate to lead a social revolution.

Studies on Kenyan and Ugandan populations reveal that absence of male circumcision increases the risk of genital ulcer disease and HIV/AIDS. The abnormally large male surplus urban societies and their network with prostitutes provide a core group for AIDS spreading. The reduced commercial sex in rural areas reflects traditional sexual confinement to marriage and reduced incidence of commercial sex. The disease spreads within the core community rather than outside the group.

Community and hospital based studies were conducted to assess the major factors related to the practice of family planning during 1989 and 1990 in Central Sudan. The mothers of 1592 births in the community and 1357 births in the hospital were interviewed by trained study workers. Prevalence of contraceptive use prior to current pregnancy was 13.0% and knowledge of a family planning method was 43.0% among hospital women and 51.0% among community women. The major predictors of use of a family planning method were parity, socioeconomic status, knowledge of source of service and maternal age. The average completed family size was 7.7 children and with the exception of a lengthy breast feeding duration, the factors examined favored a high fertility. Women preferred and apparently practiced behaviors conducive to spacing rather than limiting the number of their children. The results between the hospital, the community, and the Sudan Demographic and Health Survey 1989/1990 were consistent suggesting a minimal effect of selection bias and increasing the validity of these findings. Accessible and available family planning services coupled with wider information on family planning through health personnel and the media are needed. In particular, special efforts should be made to reach women of low socioeconomic status.

Long distance drivers and prostitutes at trading centres and towns have been targeted as groups that engage in risky sexual behaviours that promote HIV transmission. While towns and stops along highways have been linked to HIV transmission, the role of small urban and rural centres have been overlooked. There is need to study socio-geographical mating networks because situations not deemed to be risky may be an important aspect of HIV transmission.

In northern Uganda, physical and structural violence (political repression, economic inequality, and gender-based discrimination) increase vulnerability to HIV infection. In settings of war, traditional HIV prevention that solely promotes risk avoidance and risk reduction and assumes the existence of personal choice inadequately addresses the realities of HIV transmission. The design of HIV prevention strategies in northern Uganda must recognize how HIV transmission occurs and the factors that put people at risk for infection. A human rights approach provides a viable model for achieving this aim.

This paper reports on a trial of vaginal products that were distributed and used by 131 women and 21 men in south west Uganda. It focuses specifically upon the issue of female control in heterosexual relationships and examines whether methods which are ostensibly under women's control, will in practice give women greater control of their sexual health. Participants were invited to select two from a range of vaginal products that included the female condom, contraceptive sponge, film, tablets, foam and gel, and use each for five weeks and their favourite product for a further three months. They were interviewed up to seven times over a five-month period. Although the women perceived that a major advantage of the products (with the exception of the female condom) was that they could be used secretly, less than 40% were using the products without their partner's knowledge after one week and this proportion declined over time with only 22% using the products secretly after ten weeks. In the main male partners were told as women felt it their duty to inform them. In general the women were very much more positive about the products than they were about the male condom, as were the men. A contributory factor to their popularity among women was the greater control they gave them. Even though, use of these products in practice often involved negotiation with male partners, the fact that use was contingent on women's action was empowering and increased somewhat their ability to control their sexual health. Keywords: Female control; HIV; Contraceptives; Uganda

This study uses survey and focus-group data from the 1995--96 Negotiating Reproductive Outcomes study in Uganda to describe the nature of the decision to stop childbearing and to question the [...]

The principal aim of this study of adolescents in Mbale District, Uganda, is to provide program-related information about their behavior, motivations, and perceptions of risk with regard to pregnancy and [...]

Summary. Uganda has registered significant improvement regarding economic growth and the raising of women's status at the macro level. Commerce is one of the sectors that attracts women of varying [...]

In April, the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA-U) achieved its most significant legal success to date when the nation's Constitutional Court overturned key parts of the adultery law--which allowed [...]