FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It's a painfully familiar story across Africa. Fatuma Namata struggles each day to feed the household she heads of 10 children; four are orphans of her two sisters who died of AIDS. She, too, is HIV-positive. Yet unlike most other Africans, Ugandans like this family live with less stigma from AIDS, and more hope. For example, although two of Namata's children are HIV-positive, both receive the once prohibitively costly antiretroviral drugs
FATUMA NAMATA (through translator): They are aware. They understand about HIV and AIDS, and in the future they're hoping that maybe there will be a cure. In fact, the younger one expects to grow up. He wants to be a pilot.DE SAM LAZARO: Uganda has long had campaigns to urge love and support for those in need. In the 1980s, when most African nations were denying they had a problem, Uganda's government readily acknowledged AIDS and encouraged programs to deal with it, including a network of community support groups called TASO [The AIDS Support Organization].
TASO's drama and dance groups taught the ways HIV is-and isn't-spread. They also helped launch a unique prevention campaign called ABC. It was described in this 1995 interview by TASO's founder:
NOERINE KALEEBA (Founder, TASO): Abstinence. Be faithful. Condom use.
DE SAM LAZARO: Acting health minister Dr. Samuel Okware says ABC made no value judgments. It just offered options for everyone, whether they were ready to abstain, be faithful, or use condoms.
Dr. SAMUEL OKWARE (Acting Health Minister, Uganda): Even in the same individual, in the morning you are on mode A. In the evening you are on mode B. And maybe at night, after a small drink, you are on mode C, and vice versa.DE SAM LAZARO: The results were impressive. A key measure of the epidemic, HIV prevalence among pregnant women, dropped dramatically from 30 percent to 6.5 percent by the early 2000s. These achievements won praise and more international aid. President Bush visited Uganda in 2003. He cited the ABC program as a model when he increased AIDS assistance to African countries that year. But to some, the increased American aid has been a mixed blessing. The reason: Under the Bush plan at least one third of all prevention dollars must go to promote abstinence. The number of such programs has grown.
UNIDENTIFIED MEN (singing on stage): Jesus, I want to be close to you.
DE SAM LAZARO: Many are led by evangelical Christian groups modeled after American counterparts that lobbied for the abstinence requirement.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1 (being interviewed): I signed my abstinence pledge card last year.
DE SAM LAZARO: At Uganda's largest university, abstinence rallies are held every two weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1 (being interviewed): A-Abstinence; B-Be faithful; and redefine that "C" to Change Company.
DE SAM LAZARO: If condoms are mentioned at all, it's to question the morality - or the effectiveness - of using them, even though almost all scientists say condoms do help contain the spread of the AIDS virus.
Pastor EDWARD BALIGONZAKI: I had one problem one time with one of the pastors, who said condom use is for those condemned.
DE SAM LAZARO: Condemned?
Pastor BALIGONZAKI: Condoms are for the condemned-Condoms, C, condoms for the condemned. But for the righteous it is A, B. DE SAM LAZARO: Pastor Edward Baligonzaki counsels young people at this Kampala church. He says some of them simply will not be able to abstain. He says for them condoms are becoming less freely available and fears this could lead to more unprotected sex and HIV infections.
Pastor BLAIGONZAKI: We are talking about young people who are having a body, who have feelings. We are bound to lose the war the moment we turn physical health and realistic issues into moral issues.
STEPHEN LANGA (Executive Director, Family Life Network, speaking at workshop): Abstinence and behavior change…DE SAM LAZARO: But to abstinence educators moral issues are paramount.
Mr. LANGA (speaking at workshop): We are working toward the restoration of family values and morals in our society. 
BEATRICE WARE (AIDS Activist): I think Uganda is simply trying to be politically correct, to say what will please Bush. 
Dr. JONATHAN MERMIN (U.S. Centers for Disease Control): The U.S. government activities have tended to be expansive from the very beginning. We now have increased activities with youth, increased activities with faith based organizations, increased activities with indigenous nongovernmental organization. So there's a chance to infuse all of these activities with an ABC approach.
