Go RED for Fidelity Campaign
According to the organisers, "Going RED" represents a movement of men and women who stand for mutual faithfulness in marriage. The acronym RED stands for Reliable, Exceptional, and Dependable. Organisers promote the acronym with the symbolism of what a faithful person is or what the unfaithful should aspire to be. The idea is to create a movement of fidelity ambassadors who choose to dress in red and use that to spark dialogue on the benefits of fidelity and what one can do to keep his/her marriage relationship strong. The campaign encourages married couples to wear something red as a symbol of commitment to one's spouse and to demonstrate pride in the decision to be faithful. The campaign also seeks to address, through increased risk perception, the growing challenge of multiple concurrent partnerships that are fuelling HIV infections.
Multi-media campaign materials feature a red theme and a slogan 'Go RED for Fidelity.' These materials include strategically placed billboards, posters, television and radio ads, wristbands, and viral test messages. The campaign seeks to highlight the complexity of adult sexuality, which is something that has not been approached before in Uganda.
In November 2010, the second phase of the campaign was launched by the First Lady Mrs. Janet Museveni. This phase introduces The Love Wheel which is an innovation tool aimed at strengthening marriages and promoting mutual fidelity among couples. It was developed by a team of 12 relationship experts and contains love tips for married couples.
HIV/AIDS
According to the organisers, although Uganda's much-lauded 'zero-grazing' prevention campaign of the 1990s cut HIV prevalence in the adult population from about 18% to roughly 6% in 2000, rates are beginning to climb again. The zero-grazing campaign focused mainly on young unmarried people. A survey completed in 2008 found that 43% of new infections occurred in monogamous relationships, highlighting the need for prevention messages to shift from the traditional target of unmarried youth.
Another study conducted by PACE found that although the proportion of people who reported faithfulness in the past 12 months was high, the majority of respondents claimed that their friends and colleagues encouraged them to cheat and that there was limited community support for fidelity.
Programme for Accessible Health, Communication and Education (PACE), Organization of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), Ministry of Health, and Uganda AIDS Commission.
PACE website and on African Press International website December 6 2010.
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