The Archbishop of Uganda delivered the keynote address at an UNFPA conference in Kampala examining the place of religious groups in halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The Archbishop of Uganda delivered the keynote address last week at a conference in Kampala organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) examining the place of religious groups in combating gender violence, encouraging maternal and reproductive health, and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. On 8 Oct 2015 Archbishop Stanley Ntagali (pictured) reported the HIV prevalence rate has increased from 6.5 per cent to 7.3 per cent of the population, with the rate among women rising to almost eight per cent. “As the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda we can discuss and review what we have done, and how to address the challenges. We made resolutions to increasingly utilise our places of worship, churches and mosques, to talk about the scourge of HIV/Aids, maternal health and gender based violence,” the archbishop said, adding: “Let us use these platforms to mobilise, organise and empower our people to guard against the dangers of gender-based violence, and urge families to seek HIV/Aids services and promote safe practices.” Approximately 1.4 million people, including 190,000 children, live with HIV/AIDS in Uganda. An estimated 62,000 people died from AIDS in 2011 and 1.1 million children have been orphaned by the epidemic. Public health programs and new medical regimes have reduced the number of HIV deaths, such that the number of new infections per year exceeds the number of annual AIDS deaths. Education was an important component in halting the spread of the disease the archbishop said, calling upon Christian, Muslim and traditional religious leaders to work harder to educate their people.