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Uganda

Red Cross to circumcise 400 youths to prevent HIV

Written by Catherine Ntabadde
Sunday, 22 January 2012 15:02

By William Male-Branch Manager URCS Jinja

Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) together with Program for accessible Health Communication and Education (PACE) organized Safe Male Circumcision outreaches in Jinja. URCS is conducting this exercise through its URCS Jinja Branch.

Young males are getting interested to be circumcised. The outreaches started on 18th January will last until 24th January. A-team of 3 surgeons from Bugiri district has so far circumcised 146 males who are sexually active between the age of 15-24 and 25 above. The target is 400 male.

URCS is utilising village health teams and media to inform the communities about this exercise.

PACE is a non- governmental organization, operating under the mandate of Ministry of Health in the areas of, malaria, HIV/AID, safe water and Reproductive Health.

PACE received funding from Civil Society Fund to carry out a Community Directed Response Project in 8 districts in Eastern Uganda and 14 sub-counties were targeted. The goal of this project is to contribute to the reduction of HIV incidence rate in the sub county by mid 2012.

With the current national prevalence of 6.4, HIV is still a major challenge in this country and a lot of efforts are being directed towards its prevention.

The Red Cross and other partners are emphasizing safe male circumcision as per the recommendation of World Health Organization and the Uganda Government policy on SMC.

All this has been possible because of the good working relationship between the URCS Jinja Branch and the district together with other partner organizations.