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John 9:1-3
ENGLISH PROGRAMMES
06
. 2 Fe b r uar y 20
o
Vol. 13 N

I was born
with HIV
Proscovia is 17 and has just
completed 'O' levels. She is
beautiful and strong.
Can you see
with your eyes
that she has
HIV?
She told our student journalists: “I was born
with HIV. I tested positive in S2. At first I hated
and stigmatized myself. Most of the time I
would sit away from my friends and cry. I felt
very useless. I was angry and annoyed. But the
counseling I got from CDC and TASO changed
my life.

I am now on ARVs and doing well. My advice

to fellow youth is: ‘Avoid self-stigma. Feel free
and get counselling from TASO or a nearby
health centre.’” Learn more from Proscovia
on Page 2.

Journalists for a day Headteachers!

This year Straight Talk is coming adolescents. They also answered Renew your
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PO Box
to you in person! In 2006 our Dear Syfa questions.
editors are putting together
every issue of the newspaper
with a Straight Talk club up- It is a new year. So Post Office
country. needs you to pay for your PO
Box. Rush now. A school
This Straight Talk was written by without a PO Box does not
students in Tororo. We found "My opinion is...": easily get Straight Talk.
them attending activities at the Student editors at work.
FPAU youth center. Thanks, FPAU, Do you belong to a Straight Talk
for welcoming us. club — in or out-of-school?
Would you like to be a journalist
These students learnt a lot by for a day? Write to Journalist for a
working as journalists for Straight
Talk. They walked around town Day, Straight Talk,
and interviewed other Students design page one. PO Box 22366, Kampala.
2 Straight Talk, February 2006
Proscovia’s story
By Brian Pade and Caro
Athieno
"My mother died when I was 13.
I was the one in the hospital
washing her and taking care of
her. She didn’t tell me that she
had HIV. I found out from my
dad. She died when I was doing
P7 in 2000. In those days we did
not have ARVs.
My brother died when he was 8
in 2001 and my sister died when
she was 6 in 2002.
I was also born with the virus
but I lived without falling sick
until I reached S2. I got very sick.
I had TB and malaria. I was
coughing seriously.
Boys started calling me
"sick girl". I took it simple
but reported to a teacher.
She talked to them, and
they stopped.
The day I went to test, my CD4
count was just 84. I was very
thin, weighing only 32 kgs. They
started me on TB treatment.
After one month I started on
ARVs. That was 2004. I began
Talk about it!
Proscovia was brave to tell
her story. Let us learn from
it. Discuss in a Straight Talk
or any other club:
•Why do people give
nicknames to people who
they think have HIV?
•What can you do to stop it
from happening?
•How can you help
classmates with HIV?
•What do you think about
Prossie's decision never to
marry?
Let's get medical!
Tuberculosis (TB)
This is the main infection that
attacks the immune system
when HIV has weakened you.
If you test positive for HIV, get
checked right away for TB.
You can have it without
knowing. Treatment is free, and
TB is curable.
Septrin
Taken twice daily, this antibiotic
reduces sickness due to HIV.
You get less malaria, diarrhoea
and skin or chest infections. It
helps your CD4 count not to
Asking questions: journalists for a day Caro and Brian
interview Proscovia. Caro is in S6 at Kithende SS, Wakiso.
Brian has just completed S6 at Kiira College, Jinja.
feeling better right away. I got no
bad side effects. I started gaining
weight. I am now approaching 60
kgs. I finally got my periods in
2005 when I was over 16.
I take three tablets twice a day. My
CD4 count increased slowly by
fall. Everyone with HIV needs to
talk to their counselor about
Septrin.
CD4 count
CD4 cells are the white blood cells
targeted by the HIV. A healthy
person has a CD4 count of 500-
1000. When the CD4 count falls
below 200, a person with HIV
needs ARVs.
Prossie’s CD4 count rose from just
84 to 504 after 2 years on ARVs.
A CD4 cell with HIVs (seen as small
blue dots) attached to it. The HIVs
will eventually destroy the cell.
ARVs (Antiretrovirals)
ARVs are the only medicines that
stop HIV from reproducing. About
9% of people with HIV in Uganda
need ARVs.
ARVs are not a cure: you can still
infect others. And you need to
take ARVs for life. When you stop,
the HIV starts to multiply again.
told them that I am HIV positive
and they should pray for me.
They said: “Don’t be worried.”
I am talking now to Straight Talk
to help others in my situation.
At TASO we have a club of nine
adolescents on ARVs. We bring
our experiences and advise each
other.
Boys come to me. I tell them I am
not ready for a relationship. But
we still chat.
I am not planning to get married.
I do not want to infect anyone. If
I get a job, I’ll just stay with that."
Proscovia shows her
medicines. You have to take
slowly. It is now 504. ARVs exactly as the doctor
I have told five people that I am says. You need to try to
HIV positive. They are close to never miss a dose.
me. If I am absent, they copy
notes for me. Proscovia passed her 'O' level
exams. Straight Talk Foundation/
Before, when I was very sick, they Mvule Trust will pay for her 'A'
would say: “Prossie, what?!” So I Level education.
HIVis
You do not pick
a red bean: no
infection.
chance
In some couples one partner has
HIV, while the other does not. This
is called discordance. How does
this happen?
Think about a bag of white beans You do pick a red
with a few red beans in it, bean. Now you
are infected. This
representing HIV. can happen on
your first act of
When you put your hand in, you sex.
might pull out just white beans. So
on that act of sex, you did not get
the virus, but you could have.
But the next time you put your hand
in the bag, you pick a red bean. So
on that act of sex, you got HIV.
If your partner has a high viral load
of HIV or one of you has an STD,
there will be more red beans in the You are more likely
bag. You will have more chance of to pick a red bean
(get HIV) if one of
getting infected. You cannot tell you has an STD or
someone with a high HIV load or
your partner has
STDs by just looking at them a high viral load.
Unless they stop sex or use
condoms for every act of sex,
sooner or later the negative person
in a discordant couple gets
infected.
Getting HIV is chance. Do not
gamble with it.
 3 Straight Talk, February 2006

Be a highly effective teenager

A habit is something that
you do automatically. Get good habits! You reap what you sow! Be pro-active
• A good habit is like This year Straight Talk is Have a goal
For a life with
washing your hands going to be talking about
fruitful Put first things first
after going to the a set of powerful habits
latrine. that will give us more harvests, Think win win
• A bad habit is blaming control over our lives. work on these
others for everything Be a good listener
bad that happens to good
Have a look at these Work with others
you. drawings and ask habits.
yourself.
Make or break Constantly renew yourself
Your habits can make • How many of those
you into a great person. good habits are mine?
Or they can break you • And how many of the
into pieces. bad habits are mine?
STF credits Sean Covey and
The good thing is that his book: The 7 Habits of •Blame others
we can choose our For a life of
Highly Effective Teenagers
habits, and we can learn for these ideas. regrets, try •Do not have a plan
new and better ones. these bad
•Put off important things to last

ou g ht an d you reap an habits! minute

Sow a th .
(But we do
eap a habit
•See life as a competition
act. an d yo u r NOT
t
Sow an ac and you reap a •Do not listen to other people's ideas
Sow a habit recommend
character. acter and you reap a them!) •Exhaust yourself with unproductive
Sow a char By Samuel Smile
s ventures
destiny.
•Never cooperate

Start your own business

Boys, have you thought
of selling water? Clean
fresh water is needed
everywhere.
It costs about 50,000/=
to start a water business.
That money will buy you
a wheelbarrow and four
jerry cans. Or you can
simply use your bicycle
and two jerry cans.
Girls, what about running
a tea service? You will
need to buy cups, a tray,
Most families find it No sitting idle! a sigiri, charcoal and milk
hard to pay school You can start up a busi- and tea or coffee.
fees. So almost every ness that makes a profit
teenager needs to Or what about roasting
wherever people:
think of how to make gonja or making chapati?
money during holi-
1. need to buy things. David is a professional
days or in the eve- 2. need things to be done chapati maker in
nings after school. for them. Kampala.
"I start working at 6am Kampala, and tell us how
and press three packets of you combine work with
wheat flour. I prepare 70 school. Win a prize!
chapatis a day, which I
sell at the taxi stage for Describe your business,
200 each. I can earn including the challenges,
14,000 shillings a day how much you have to
before I take away costs." spend to do your busi-
ness and how much you
Could you do this work earn.
during your holidays or
after school? With thanks to GTZ and its
youth business handbook.
How about selling cas-
settes, shining shoes,
washing cars or collecting
and selling old newspa-
pers?
In 2006 Straight Talk is
celebrating working
adolescents who are also
schooling.
Write to PO Box 22366,

Rock Point 256 is a radio drama: enjoy and learn

4 Straight Talk, February 2006
My boyfriend Vincent, Mark, Roney and Banda.

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promised to marry

Dear
me. He has finished Straight Talk adds:
his studies but I am Charles, this is what
still studying. He happens if you use a
condom only “usually ”

SYFA
always asks me for
sex which I do not (most times). Condom
want at this time. give little or no protection
Will this boy unless you use it “always”
O.Bo 3666
2236
Boxx22 continue to be my (all the time) not “usually”.
P.P.O. P A L A lover?
M
KK AA M P A L A A Nabakooza, 17, I love my boy like
S3, Kagadi nothing on earth. We
Academy, Kibaale used to stay together in
the same district but
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He is actually not your now we stay very far

boyfriend because he and meet only once in a
does not respect the while. When we meet, he
completion of your demands for sex. When I All these Dear SYFA questions were answered
studies. Insist on your refuse, he tells me that by the Tororo FPAU youth group (in picture),

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decision to wait. Patience I’ve lost respect for him.
He never used to tell me
who were Straight Talk ìJournalists for a Dayî
pays to those who wait. for this issue of Straight Talk. You can also be
Anita, remember. Good such. Please advise
men love ladies who because I am worried of a ìJournalist for a Dayî. Write to
stick to wise decisions. loosing him. P.O. Box 22366, Kampala.
So do not be afraid of Agnes, Zika Foundation is for sex or for marriage.
School, Kibaale healthy decisions in your
being dumped.

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If it is for marriage, then mind. Answer by Vincent, Mark,
He may not keep his he waits. If it is for sex, Roney and Banda.
promise to marry you if Agnes, first understand then you put an end to it.
Munankone Jafali, ST you give into sex. Answer what true love is. True
club member, love means waiting,
Answer by Vincent, Mark, Roney When a girl starts
by M Malengerera, S Osere and Banda.
Kangulumo SS, patience and being menstruating and
Busembatia genuine. If this is lacking misses a month does it
My boyfriend and I I am an S6 vacist and a mean that she is
agreed to delay sex but in your relationship, it is virgin. Friends say that
not good enough. Please pregnant? If not, what is
recently he tried to at the university I must the cause?
rape me. I fought him talk to your boyfriend get a girl to fit in. They
when he is in a good R Nakasanye, 14,
and he ran away in say campus girls are so Nakaseke 2000
shame. Later he wrote mood. sharp and put on outfits
Ask him if the relationship Academy
to apologise. He said he that even the impotent
had been overcome by can hardly resist. It is normal to have
emotions. We have been Advise me in time. periods then stop,
apart for four months. I Tom, Soroti especially for a beginner.
still have feelings for However, if you miss your
him. But I feel he could Thanks, Tom. Despite the periods and had earlier
be violent again. pressure, fitting in on had unprotected sex,
Dorcus, 14, Nyakyera campus does not mean then it is possible that one
SS, Ntungamo you should have a girl. is pregnant. Visit a health
Have educational friends centre for peace of mind.
Iwumbwe Joel, Please Dorcus, at 14 you who can help you to stay Answer by B Pade, Ramazan N, C
Headboy, Lwamata are still too young to safe by delaying sex or Kutosi, C Athieno, Peter M, all S6
Central Academy, have a boyfriend. Look always using a condom. vacists.
Kiboga ahead of you. There is a The outfits girls put on
bright future after your should not scare you. Straight Talk Foundation
education. Have self-control and thanks the “Journalists
He is not the right person Education and saying for a Day” in Tororo for
No to sex is our

UIIZ
for you since he cannot

QU Z
these great answers.

Q
respect your feelings and priority, ST club
ambitions and also members, Lwangosia
cannot control his sexual SS, Bugiri
desire. Answer by F Armani
activity. If
? If yes, do the following as a club
I have a girlfriend. We Are you in a Straight Talk or any club
.
usually have protected not, take it as your own assignment ney and things in your life. Is it right to have a
of mo
Talk with a friend about the role in a
sex. The last time we gs? When are money and things good
met she told me that relationship for money and thin
problems?
she is pregnant yet she relationship? When do they cause
is in S6. What can I do ly write to us
because I don’t want Based on those questions, private
you ever had a
Mubiru Isa, Chairman my parents to know answering these questions: Have
What
ST Club, Buzibwera about it. relationship for money and things?
SS, Luweero Charles, Kawempe happened? What did you get?
Muslim or money to get
OR : Have you ever offered things
you give ? Did you get
Now Charles, accept the a relationship? What did your
us the story of
fact that this happened what you wanted? Tell raffle for
rs will go into a
and, like you said, you relationship. Your lette
prizes. Wait and see! Write to ST
Money Quiz,
actually seem to be
responsible for it. PO Box 22366, Kampala
We advise you to involve
your parents since you
feel you cannot handle Publisher: STRAIGHT TALK FOUNDATION
this matter alone. Or you 45 Bukoto St., Kamwokya, P. O. Box 22366, Tel: 0312-262030, 0312-262031 041-
can involve your closest 530088 Kampala (U), Fax: 041-534858, E-mail: strtalk@imul.com, strtalk@straight-
relatives. If this does not talk.or.ug, Web: www.straight-talk.or.ug Communications Director: Cathy Watson,,
Kachaina Anita, work, consult a Programme Director: Anne Akia Fiedler, Editors: Teopista Agutu, Betty
Rwentobo HS, counselor or health Kagoro, Edith Kimuli, Gilbert Awekofua. Designers: MeBK, G.bM, Funded by
Ntungamo worker for help. Answer by DANIDA, DFID, Ireland Aid, and SIDA Printer: Vision Printing