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Americans for UNFPA
Jim Cowan

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Uganda Supreme Muslim Council health center in Mityana

I was surprised, although I should not have been, to discover that the Muslim community in Uganda supports a Population Program that provides pre-natal care, routine deliveries, post-natal care, immunizations, nutrition counselling, family planning services, HIV-AIDS testing and counseling, and treats simple medical illnesses in women and children, all in the building shown at the left.

Above, the teacher of this family planning class is about to put a condom on a banana. The VCR behind her is playing a tape on the prevention of HIV infection.

The center was founded in 1975 with funds from the World Muslim Council. Today the Population Program has the strong support of the Muslim leadership in Uganda

We toured the center, and were welcomed with music, songs and dances, and speeches. A white-robed sheik, a Muslim leader at the national level, spoke of traditional Muslim values of love and respect within families, and the Muslim reverence for science, and for health and health care.

The USMC Population Program transmits Muslim values to the population it serves but it was also clear that the leadership of the program was educating the Muslim leadership on reproductive health issues and twenty-first century approaches to women's health.

Here a nurse explains medications to waiting patients.

Muslim leaders, health center staff and Americans for UNFPA delegates. The sheik who spoke of Muslim values is in white to the left of Peggy Goldwyn (front row in pink.) The woman in yellow on the extreme left is the leader of the USMC Population Program and was a powerful advocate for women's reproductive health issues and for the center. I suspect that a lot of the program's success was due to her capability, energy and hard work.

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