Legislator wants to reward female virgins with university education
20/07/2005 1:23:00 PM
http://healthandfitness.sympatico.m...=6&showbyline=False&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc
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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - A legislator is offering to pay university fees for girls who are virgins when they graduate from high school, partly in hopes of fighting AIDS.
"We want to encourage people to be morally upright and not to go into early marriages. We also want girls to resist defilement. We do not want these girls to get exposed to AIDS," Bbaale County Member of Parliament Sulayiman Madaada said Wednesday.
He said he was counting on donors to help pay for the project.
Health workers in the central Kayunga District will conduct gynecological examination on girls who want to take part in the project - which is also intended to promote the education of girls there, Madaada told The Associated Press.
Uganda was one of the countries hit hardest by HIV/AIDS, but an aggressive campaign led by political, religious and community leaders pushed down infection rates from as high as 30 per cent in the early 1990s to around seven per cent now.
Infection rates, however, still remain high in parts of Uganda.
20/07/2005 1:23:00 PM
http://healthandfitness.sympatico.m...=6&showbyline=False&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc
--------------------------------------------------------------------
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - A legislator is offering to pay university fees for girls who are virgins when they graduate from high school, partly in hopes of fighting AIDS.
"We want to encourage people to be morally upright and not to go into early marriages. We also want girls to resist defilement. We do not want these girls to get exposed to AIDS," Bbaale County Member of Parliament Sulayiman Madaada said Wednesday.
He said he was counting on donors to help pay for the project.
Health workers in the central Kayunga District will conduct gynecological examination on girls who want to take part in the project - which is also intended to promote the education of girls there, Madaada told The Associated Press.
Uganda was one of the countries hit hardest by HIV/AIDS, but an aggressive campaign led by political, religious and community leaders pushed down infection rates from as high as 30 per cent in the early 1990s to around seven per cent now.
Infection rates, however, still remain high in parts of Uganda.
