Fighting AIDS: Testing, Counselling, and Sensitization among the youth

April 15, 2012 | Filed under: Blog | Posted by: urfblog

HIV testing

In collaboration with the The AIDS Service Organization (TASO), URF organized a day of free HIV Screening and Counselling on March 30th, 2012 at Hope Academy in Kyetume, Masaka, Uganda.

The team facilitated an awareness session to sensitize students, the teachers, URF staff and the entire community on issues related to HIV and AIDS.

The students had a chance to ask all that they wanted to know about sex education, the dangers of early pregnancies and how to live positively if one found out that they had the virus.

Counseling and testing for everyone interested was among the many services they gave.

TASO provides free ARVs to HIV patients. These drugs provide some resistance to the virus to help the person to live a normal life for an extended period of time.

An estimated 940,000 people are living with HIV, with the national HIV prevalence rate of 6.4%. Over 2.0 million children in Uganda are orphan children due HIV/AIDS and other causes.

The turn up was magnificent. Special thanks to the TASO team from Masaka and Uganda Empower. We look forward to hosting you next time.