By Lukanga Samuel
While PDM was good news in the aftermath of the 2021 general elections, for those who looked ahead, three major challenges stood out against its success: the depth of remaining poverty, the unevenness in shared prosperity, and the persistent disparities in the non-income dimensions of development.
It is very evident that chronic political instability and erratic economic management since the implementation of self-rule has produced a record of persistent economic decline that has left Uganda among of the world’s poorest and least-developed countries.
There are several factors that make it difficult for people to escape poverty. A bureaucratic procedural access to capital is a major contributor to poverty traps as is poor education, infrastructure, and healthcare.
History has it that in early 2002, HE the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, proposed a way to improve communication on HIV and AIDS to young people. The President had concerns. Uganda had great success in containing HIV. But this positive trend might have reversed if children did not continue to receive enough and correct information. The President’s vision was for headteachers to address school assemblies on HIV and AIDS every two weeks. Other teachers could then take the discussion into classrooms and clubs.
This strategy took advantage of Universal Primary Educauon
(UPE). Under UPE almost all children of primary age were in school. The Uganda AIDS Commission responded to the President’s call. UAC gathered together government line ministries, civil society organisations, the private sector and individuals working in HIV to forge a way forward in responding to the President’s call. The Ministry of Education also acted, spearheading a new HIV/AIDS strategy for youth with the Ministries of Health, Gender, Labour and Social Development, and Local Government. The strategy was called PIASCY, which stands for the Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth.
PIASCY compulsorily provided new materials to intensify teaching of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Two new books were written for the first term of 2003 for pretesting in schools.
As a result of the pretest, the two books were reworked. There was now one PIASCY book for teachers of pupils in P3 and 4 and another for teachers of pupils in P5, 6 and 7. This book, PIASCY : Helping pupils to stay safe P5-7 contained 26 key messages and activities for assemblies, clubs and classes. It was indeed a resource book on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS and how to teach it.
At the time of implementing PIASCY, Uganda had 13,500 primary schools with enrolment figures of over 7 million pupils. Many of these children did not have regular or correct information about HIV/AIDS. Yet they were a captive audience, ready to absorb new facts and values.
The country has had more success in reducing HIV/AIDS than any other country. But by how much more could Uganda reduce HIV/AIDS if all pupils were well informed?
For the Parish Development model which targets households, the country had 5.043.000 in 2002, 5,802,119 below that of 2024 as per the census figures with 50.5% of the population being children(potential clients primary schools) with a workforce of 55.6% for those 14-64 years of age.
During PIASCY—the most successful social change campaign under NRM Government, Parents were the first and most important sex educators of children. The values, facts and life skills that parents did or did not give to their child had more bearing on the child staying safe from HIV than any other factor.
Teachers were the “parents” at school. They were ideally placed to help pupils to understand their growing bodies and changing emotions. Good teachers went ahead to encourage children to stay in schools.
For PDM with its seven pillars has no genuine successful story after three years of operation. It has only remained great on papers and successful verbally from those milking its existence.
Even when the NRM government has tried a number of poverty eradication schemes, it still exists in Uganda and much of it is hidden. One in seven Ugandans live in poverty based on the after-tax low-income measure. Poverty is often hidden and the size of the problem can vary depending on the cost of living and the concentration of poverty in particular neighbourhoods.
Regardless of PDM’s success in other African countries, many Ugandans cannot pay for basic necessities and face significant barriers to work, which take an emotional and psychological toll. Poverty affects some groups more than others. Ugandans living in poverty are survivors from the fact that we’re food-advantaged, but they need more support to make a bigger change in their lives.
It was in the early days of PIASCY that very few children in Uganda had sex before the age of 14. By definition, most pupils were abstaining. But this was not because they had decided to abstain. For many, it was simply because they had not yet had the chance or desire to have sex.
Like the failing PDM on socioeconomic transformation, the urgent task of PIASCY was to move these children from passively abstaining to deliberately abstaining.
Together with the Uganda AIDS Commission, Museveni who launched PDM on 26th of February 2024, launched the PIASCY in 2002.
For God and My Country, Uganda!
The writer is a Social Development Enthusiast and an Ambassador of Humanity.
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