Say NO to Sugar Daddies

Actual ad from a campaign against HIV in Uganda. Caption reads:

Girls! The gifts, the nights out and the cash can never be worth your lives and future. Older men are taking advantage of you and putting you at risk of HIV infection, in exhange for material things. This practice is called cross generational sex. Respect yourselves and Say NO to Sugar Daddies.

Uganda is once again losing in the battle against the spread of HIV. This weekend's Vancouver Sun had a special article on HIV's newest propelling factor - 'cross-generational sex'. An example of this is that at night, rich older men will drive onto University campuses to pick up their dates. These young women are selling themselves for gifts, a fancy night out, or even to have their school tuitions paid. One girl was lured into such a meeting to find that it was her own father who would be her "sugar daddy".

Did you catch yourself smirking at the term "sugar daddy"? This term makes its way into our conversations with a smile and a joking nudge. Yet, Uganda's young women (and sometimes men in response to a rise in "sugar mommies") are having sex with these older rich men and in turn getting infected with HIV.

It would take me a while to try to convey the struggle, political and otherwise, that Uganda has gone through in their fight against the HIV virus. (If you are interested, this article, "Rolling Back Uganda's Early Gains Against AIDS", gives a consise summary.) In the meantime, please be praying for a change in the thinking of the Ugandan people. Saying "no" to a sugar daddy in her college years will most likely only delay a woman's chance of contracting HIV. The push is for skilled and confident women who don't need to depend on men for money, and also for a decrease in sexual partners. Only a change of thinking can bring a stop to another epidemic.