The SOS Children's Village Gulu, in partnership with several organisations, recently went all out to create awareness of HIV/AIDS.

It is estimated that close to two million people live in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in Uganda, many of them because of the civil war in the north. Living in such close proximity with each other and often with little to do except struggle to survive, has changed the social behaviour of many people in the area, contributing greatly to the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to official UNAIDS figures, about 6.7% of Uganda's adult population (15 to 49) are infected with HIV. Additionally, 74% of men and 26% of women age 15 to 24 admitted having had casual sex over a 12 month period, and only about half used a condom. Is it any wonder then that over 1,000,000 children in Uganda have become orphans through HIV/AIDS?

SOS Children's Village Gulu is among several organisations that are intervening to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS through the services provided at the SOS Medical Centre and through the family strengthening programme (FSP), a community-based outreach programme. Hundreds of people from the community have voluntarily turned up for HIV/AIDS testing since the inception of the testing services in 2005, the majority of whom are women. 86 families in the community, as part of the FSP programme, receive regular HIV/AIDS sensitisation given by the SOS social workers. Additionally, twelve FSP families with HIV positive children receive additional nutritional support, medical care and counselling.

The Concordia Volunteer Abroad Programme (CVAP) from Concordia University in Canada, which partners with SOS Children's Village Gulu, and a local community-based organisation, Health Alert, recently organised a joint HIV/AIDS awareness week, during which radio announcements and talk shows took place. The activity-packed week had its climax with a three-day soccer gala in Pece Stadium (close to the SOS Children's Village), intended to create HIV awareness among youth, as well as to encourage them to take an HIV test.

The soccer gala attracted thousands of youths and adults. SOS co-workers played a morale-boosting match with the CVAP student volunteers, in which CVAP emerged winners, three goals to nil. And while the football matches were going on, SOS medical co-workers and Health Alert staff, assisted by the CVAP student volunteers, were busy testing and counselling young people in two tents situated beside the football pitch.

The number of young people that turned up for the HIV testing was overwhelming thanks mainly to the CVAP student volunteers' initiative to spearhead the campaign and to contribute both financially and in kind. The CVAP students included an incentive in the programme, in the form of tee shirts which were given as a reward for taking an HIV/AIDS test. All the 268 testing kits that the SOS Medical Centre had in stock were used, as well as another 200 donated by CVAP, leaving many other youth untested and eagerly in need of the service. A handful of the tested youth received their results, while the majority were asked to get them later from the SOS Medical Centre, after having a one-to-one counselling session. C

VAP volunteers now plan to throw a party in the village for all the youth who were tested and received their results which should encourage many more to come forward for testing. The campaign to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in northern Uganda is just beginning. Fifteen to twenty-four year olds are especially vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, yet the future lies in the hands of this young generation. There is therefore a need for a concerted effort to fight against this deadly disease and SOS Children's Village Gulu will continue to play its part.