MUSEVENI IS RIGHT!! SA teens challenge 15th International AIDS Conference

12 July 2004
MUSEVENI IS RIGHT!!

True Love Waits - South Africa heartily congratulates Uganda and its president Yoweri Museveni, for the bold stand promoting the vital role premarital abstinence must take in the fight against HIV/AIDS, at the UN Conference on AIDS in Bangkok today.

It is hugely exciting for us to see a fellow African willing to brave ridicule and disbelief, to tell the world that he has faith in young people. Premarital abstinence is not, as US Congresswoman Barbara Lee put it today, “inhumane”. It may be hard, but it’s very possible – as over 330 000 young South Africans have proved by signing a pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. And the rewards of this lifestyle are certainly worth the struggle.

It is strange that the approach of a country that is actually winning the war against HIV/AIDS, is labeled “impossible” and “too much to expect”. It is even stranger that ‘scientific’ methods, so enthusiastically promoted, reduce us young people to hormonally-charged-led-by-their-feelings animals unable to practice self-control. It’s insulting! Rather than feed the fires, it would help if all the experts at the Bangkok conference would focus on what will truly make a difference: Behavior Change.
TLW-SA teaches girls that it’s OK to say ‘no’ to premarital sex; that sex is not the proof of love. We teach the guys that sex maketh not the man, rather ‘the man’ is proved by his self-control.

Perhaps it would benefit scientists out there to come to the `grass roots’ level and see the life-changing success TLW-SA has in the lives of both HIV positive and HIV negative people.

TLW-SA will join True Love Waiters from over 100 countries (including Uganda), to form a large and powerful display with signed abstinence pledges on 22 August at this year’s Olympic Games in Athens. If you hadn’t noticed: Abstinence is the new trend. Don’t be left behind.

For further information call Jerusha on 083 799 9981 or email jerusha@truelovewaits.org.za or visit www.truelovewaits.org.za

For further information on the Olympic Event: www.truelovewaits.com