The government of Uganda has finally approved the importation and distribution of water-based sex lubricants. The Aids Support Organisation (TASO) handled the importation with support from the Global Fund as officials from the Ministry of Health, Uganda, decided not to import it, claiming lubricants were a tool for promoting homosexuality.
Ministry of Health officials last year told RightsAfrica.com that a total of about US $130,000 for lubricants was to be managed by TASO instead of the ministry because the ministry’s political leadership views lubricants as a tool for promoting homosexuality and, for that reason, had declined to manage the funds.
Moses Kimbugwe, the programs director at Spectrum Uganda — a service organisation for men who have sex with men (MSM), and the current Key Populations representation to Uganda’s Global Fund Board, CCM, welcomed the importation. He noted that most of the previous distributions were being done in public health centres and there would be efforts towards community-based centres soon.
