A study of HIV-positive people in fishing communities on the shores of Lake Victoria in central Uganda has found that more than a quarter have “recombinant” viruses that might threaten both treatment and prevention efforts.

On a humid evening at a downtown Kampala hotel, I began my conversation with Amanda Onapito only to be interrupted when three cockroaches swam onto our table, one sliding into my juice cocktail.

“Children don’t vote,” said Dr Robert Mwadime, of Uganda Action for Nutrition, at a session on the subject before the three-day African Union (AU) meeting opened in Kampala, Uganda.

When Allan Paton penned his novel, “Cry the Beloved Country,” it was hailed for clearly mirroring the racial divide against a downtrodden populace.

A Ugandan draft policy recommending that HIV-positive children be informed of their status by the age of 10 has drawn mixed reactions from health workers.

Last Monday, President Barack Obama signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, the culmination of years of campaigning by advocacy groups like Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children.

Parliamentarians from all over Africa are pushing for a continent-wide ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and are calling on the UN to pass a General Assembly resolution appealing for a global FGM/C ban, as it violates human rights, they say.

From dingy street corners in Uganda’s capital to the United Nations’ gleaming headquarters in New York, East African sex workers are standing up for their rights by challenging the political and social systems that discriminate against them.

In the lead-up to Uganda’s next general elections, there are fears the government is beginning a crackdown on independent media. Since 2007, radio stations across the country have suffered interference from government for hosting opposition politicians.

Umaru Swaray, 33, was a child soldier during Liberia’s civil war. Separated from his family, he walked for months crossing the continent to Uganda, searching for his family, who had escaped the war.

Monica Atto was abducted by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as a child but escaped and now lives in a suburb of Gulu, northern Uganda, with her five children, eking out a living making paper beads.

Stephen Mukasa, 23, a fisherman on East Africa’s Lake Victoria, is more terrified of drowning than he is of dying from an AIDS-related illness.