Posted on 01/31/2003 6:01:06 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
"We can't help you. Go home and die" is what President Bush said in his State of the Union Address many people with AIDS in Africa are told when they seek medical aid for their disease. The AIDS pandemic in Africa has sharply lowered the life expectancy of nations as entire regions are depopulated by a disease that has spread like wildfire. When I was living in South Africa in 1991-1992, AIDS was not even known to exist and the average life expectancy was 61 years for males and 67 years for females. By 1999, in only six years, the average life expectancy in South Africa was 52 years for males and 56 years for females and is getting shorter.
The president's comment reminded me of words I heard from Dr. Margaret Ogola, a Kenyan doctor I interviewed at the World Congress of Families in 1999 in Geneva, Switzerland who told me she believed the Westeners pushing condoms on Africa knew they spread the killer disease, rather than preventing it. Dr. Ogola noted that condoms in the African heat have "about a 30% failure rate" and "have not only caused disease but have also broken down delicate tribal taboos against promiscuous sexual behavior. She notes that Western propaganda has convinced millions of young Africans that sex with condoms that fail at least 30% of the time is "safe sex."
"The disbelief and shock in the reaction of young people when I tell them they have AIDS is heart-breaking, she said. "'But it was SAFE sex! ´ they tell me."
I doubt if President Bush is aware of the undercurrent of feeling among many Africans that the financially lucrative sale of condoms as a "prevention" for AIDS is in reality a form of biological warfare against blacks to reduce their numbers, but his determination to somehow stop the AIDS slaughter fits well into a speech warning the world about possible biological, nuclear or chemical war since, so far, 29 million people have died, worldwide, of AIDS. Forty-two million more people, worldwide, are infected with the incurable HIV virus. Most of them will not live beyond the age of 40. One third of Africa's 34 million orphans, or about one child in 20 overall, has lost his or her parents to HIV/AIDS.
Yet, in spite of these statistics, and the testimony of frontline doctors in Africa like Dr. Ogola, the Planned Parenthood Federation (PPF) still claims "The latex condom offers better protection against STDs (sexually transmitted disease) than any other birth control method." Planned Parenthood does not even consider abstinence prior to marriage as a "birth control" method. In fact, its president, Gloria Feldt in a speech entitled "Abstinence-Only Education is Irresponsible and Dangerous at Yale University said "Abstinence-only messages are not only unproven in their effectiveness, but may have harmful health consequences."
Dr. Ogola and other African health professionals tell me that they can get an unlimited supply of condoms from the Western nations, but cannot get ordinary medical supplies they need to keep people from dying of easily curable diseases. The notion of "saving the family" has been condemned outright by a powerful anti-family group at the United Nations. One UN delegate told representatives of United Families International "The family is an out of date concept."
This prompted United Families International (UFI) representative Jane Thomas to organize a pro-family youth group willing to raise a voice in defense of the family, since half of all new AIDS patients are between the ages of 15-24. She says, "The solutions are so simple and yet so remote to the people of Africa. Millions of dollars have been thrown at the AIDS crisis and it hasn't even made a dent. Abstinence can literally save millions of lives and the beauty of the solution is that it's free! If the truth about condoms is suppressed and the messages about abstinence are disregarded, near extinction of an entire continent is a real possibility. Indeed the truth is the only real hope for Africa."
Of course, United Family International, and its simple message of hope and life, did not draw much media or political attention. However, they went ahead, often funding their efforts out of their own pockets or some help from others, they developed a full-blown program which is called "Stay-Alive." UFI founding president, Susan Roylance, a seasoned veteran as a delegate at numerous United Nations Conferences around the world in the past seven years, helped get the program started.
As she explained it, many AIDS orphans are, themselves, infected with the virus at birth or through their mother's milk. Those that are infected, generally die by age six. Susan told me, "This leaves a window of opportunity" for those orphans between the ages of about six and twelve when they can be taught how to "stay alive" in their AIDS, condom and death riddled cultures of the 21st Century. The group has written the "Stay Alive Program" to teach young children how to live "long, healthy and loving lives, " a lesson of hope that children in the culture of death in AIDS riddled Africa are eager to learn. The program consists of eight lessons, beginning with: "I choose to be happy" - beginning with learning that "all choices have consequences and we "get" the consequence by making the choice that leads to that consequence.
They are positive lessons that teach not only how to prevent AIDS, but how to become self-reliant, have a strong, loving family, and how "Choosing not to "have sex" until you are married reduces your chance of getting HIV/AIDS. The last two lessons give the children hope of living long, loving, healthy lives by protecting themselves and their future families by "deciding to stay disease-free."
This is the kind of program that Planned Parenthood, which has enjoyed hundreds of millions of dollars of your tax money for many years, has condemned as "unproven" and even possibly "harmful!" Yet Uganda, the only African nation showing a marked reduction in new AIDS cases, achieved that by introducing Focus on the Family's "True Love Waits" abstinence program in 1994 and adopting United Family International's program when it became available.
Perhaps President Bush needs to invite President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to Washington to tell Congress what really has worked, stop to flood of condoms and back programs that tell the truth.
They are, please read from here on.
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