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For Ugandan Girls, Delaying Sex Has Economic Cost
August 18, 2003
By MARC LACEY
KAMPALA, Uganda - The biggest threat to Lillian's virginity
may not be her hormones or those of the boys in her high
school class. It may be her empty pockets and her ambition
that prompt her to have sex.
Lillian, a 16-year-old orphan, would be any parent's dream
child. She studies hard and picks her friends carefully.
She avoids bad influences, a challenge in this rugged slum
on the outskirts of Kampala, the capital, and she is so
committed to avoiding AIDS that she has become a leader in
her school's Straight Talk club, which promotes abstinence.
AIDS, a devastating killer in her community, is always on
this young girl's mind. The disease ended the lives of both
her parents while she was in primary school. The uncle who
then became her guardian died of AIDS as well. She is
intent on avoiding infection, and delaying sex is her - and
her country's - answer.
President Bush, on his recent tour of Africa, praised
Uganda's anti-AIDS approach, which emphasizes abstinence.
In Uganda, condoms are considered an imperfect alternative
for those who cannot wait.
But the situation is not that simple. Lillian's story and
those of some of her classmates show the challenges that
African young people, especially the girls, can face in
trying to avoid the AIDS virus.
Sex starts early here for a variety of reasons. There is
the sexual curiosity that stirs in young people everywhere.
Marriage for young girls is common as well, with girls
dropping out of school, often to become an older man's
second or third wife. Sex also presents an opportunity to
make money, and young women find few jobs available.
Poverty, it seems, can weaken even those with the most
resolve.
"It's easy to say, `Abstain,' " said Benjamin Wamusiru, an
English teacher who leads the abstinence club at a local
school. "But actually doing it is difficult with all the
pressures in society. We lose members because of pregnancy.
As time goes by, more and more of the club members
experiment. It's toughest on the girls."
A dedicated student who dreams of going to college, Lillian
struggles to come up with the fees that all secondary
school students in Uganda are required to pay. For Lillian
- who, like some of her other classmates agreed to be
interviewed on the condition that her last name not be used
- the tuition comes to about $30 a month. Recently, some of
the cousins with whom she has been living since her uncle's
death have begun pressuring her to raise money by selling
herself.
"They say, `Why don't you find a sponsor?' " she said,
dressed in her dark blue school uniform and looking very
young. "I know what they mean. They want me to do what so
many girls do and get a sugar daddy. You give him what he
wants, and he gives you what you want."
The other young women at Lillian's school say they are
propositioned just about every day by older men who offer
them a chance of a better life in exchange for sex.
The abstinence clubs are popular, with most students
prodded into joining by their parents. But many young
people, as young as 12 or 13, have already begun sexual
relationships. For them, abstinence is an abstraction. In
many of their minds, sex brings opportunity - with
infection an unwelcome byproduct.
"These big men will say, `Come, get in the car and I'll
give you a life,' " said Ruth, who is 16.
The older men wave cash and cellphones, a sign of prestige
in poor communities, and they talk about lives far more
glamorous than the ones the girls are living. They do not
bring up their H.I.V. status.
"It's so common to see old men, even teachers, with much
younger girls," said Patricia, 18, who had sex with her
teenage boyfriend years ago but has since decided to
abstain. "Everywhere you go, there's pressure from guys."
She said that poverty makes it hard to resist. "Some of us
are orphans," she said. "We are barely getting by. If
someone comes along and says he'll buy you soap, you might
try it. He gives you 1,000 shillings, and you hope next
time he'll give you 2,000." Two thousand shillings, about
$1, is a meaningful sum in this country.
At the abstinence club, all the talk is about sex,
sometimes explicitly. At a recent meeting, there was
frequent giggling. The most direct message was that sex is
dangerous these days and best left for adulthood.
"We learn to not even listen to the guys' promises,"
Patricia said. "You don't express interest. You say no and
then you walk away. Of course, some characters will
continue to bother you. But you have to try to resist."
Not everyone does. One club member dropped out of school
last year after she became pregnant by a man who was paying
her school fees. Other girls who are members of the club
were disciplined after they were found sneaking out of the
school dormitory and going to nightclubs.
"Some married men tried to get us," Ruth, who was one of
the violators, said, but none succeeded.
As for Lillian, she did not attend the club's most recent
meeting but not because she had lost interest. School
officials had given her and other students notices to pay
the money they owed the school.
Lillian's bill came to about $90. She did not know where
she would find the money. "It's difficult for me to say
what I'll do," she said glumly.
At first she rejected outright suggestions by her cousins
that she find a man to solve her financial woes. But the
more she talked about it, the more her resolve seemed to
weaken.
If she did have sex, she said, it would not be about love,
because marriage would end her education.
And she would try to remember everything the club had
taught her. She would use a condom and hope that the man
would be kind. "If it was a single man who wasn't married,
if he had good character, maybe I'd consider it," she said.
"It would be for my future."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/international/africa/18VIRG.html?ex=1062236575&ei=1&en=602c1127c60b717c
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