UCE Burundi Launched After Bishop Observes UCE Uganda
Anglican Bishop Martin Blaise Nyaboho of
Burundi, upon hearing of the Ugandan success
against HIV/AIDS, visited Uganda personally
in October
2005. He and , chairman of Mother's Union in
Makamba, joined the Uganda UCE team on
a week of school outreaches to observe their
methods.
Upon their return to Burundi, they adapted
the Ugandan strategy to fit with the needs and
culture in his diocese,f Makamba. Bishop
Nyaboho, is now leading an effort to bring
broad-based community support from Burundi
bishops, other church leaders, government
employees, parliamentarians and educators.
His vision is that Burundi might also see the
same success against HIV/AIDS as Uganda
through the simple
behaviors of
abstinence until a faithful marriage.
WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
6000
children are
orphaned daily by AIDS worldwide... 62%
of the 39.5 million people with HIV live in
Sub-Saharan Africa...Young people between
15 and
24 account for 40 percent of new infections
worldwide ... Every eight seconds a person is
infected with HIV somewhere in the world...
(WHO/UNAIDS 12/06)
Uganda has
had the
world's
most dramatic success against AIDS.The HIV
prevalence in Uganda has dropped from 21% in
1991 to
6.7% in 2005.
UCE NEEDS YOUR
SUPPORT
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The vision of UCE, "helping people live
healthy lives" is actually two-fold. First,
to help Uganda maintain their remarkable
success in combatting HIV/AIDS and secondly
to help other countries "see this light of
hope from Uganda" so that they too can
prevent themselves from getting HIV. So the
news this month that a Bishop of Burundi is
going to bring the UCE strategy to his
diocese, is BIG new indeed for it is
actually what UCE is all about!
UCE thanks it's volunteers this month:
Andrew, who among many other accomplishments
during his five month tenure, for his visit
to Burundi where he worked with Bishop
Nyaboho to help solidify his plan to
institute UCE-Burundi AND Autumn Dawn
Galbreath, MD, MBA who is now in Uganda with
UCE there. I remind you that both of them
have been blogging away and their posts are
insightful and fascinating. Enjoy!
Kim and Ken Dernovsek
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Ugandans Make Counter-Cultural Choice
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At the end of the outreach, the students
have an opportunity to sign pledges of
abstinence until marriage. Its interesting
to watch because its clear that it is
completely counter-culture to do this, and
yet, almost 3⁄4 of the students at both
schools came forward to sign a card. Its
hard to convey in black and white here, but
it really was clear to me that this wasnt
just a bandwagon to get on because there was
a lot of concern about telling other people,
including their parents, that they had made
this decision for abstinence.
I would not have been able to fully
understand before I got here just how unusual
a decision like this is in this culture. I
guess the flagrant sexual behaviors in the
culture are what set the stage for such a
strong and open message. It has to be
strongly presented in order to get through
the layers of history, personal experience,
parental modeling, and all the other
influences on these kids.
And if any of you reading this are thinking
that a more traditional US safe sex message
would be a more reasonable way to go, I wont
even debate the relative merits of abstinence
versus safe sex. I will simply tell you
that there is no way on Gods earth that
these people can, or will ever be able to,
afford a condom, and there is no way you can
give away enough condoms to solve this
problem. The only answer here is choice on an
individual level to rise above the lifestyle
around them and to engage in a different
lifestyle.
-Autumn Dawn Galbreath MD MBA
www.uceglobal. blogpost.com
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About Universal Chastity Education
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Universal Chastity Education, Inc. (UCE) is an
educational organization established in 2004 and
determined to be a public charity, status 170
(b) (1)
(A) (vi), exempt from Federal income tax under
section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code. Its
purpose is to promote through education sexual
abstinence until marriage and marital
fidelity as
healthy lifestyles free from sexually
transmitted
diseases including HIV and AIDS. UCE operates in
Uganda,
AFRICA, with staffed headquarters in
Kampala and most youth outreach/educational
events take
place in rural Uganda. Universal Chastity
Education,
Inc. is duly registered under the Republic of
Uganda
Non-governmental Organisations Registration
Statute,
1989, certificate #6196. UCE activities
launch in
Burundi, AFRICA
in 2007.
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