Young people orphaned by the disease are being taught how to fend for themselves in a training center established in an area once abandoned and avoided because of high crime.
Currently 18 teenagers are learning literacy, health and job skills at the Hopelands center, ten miles outside Uganda's second largest town, Jinja, and close to the banks of Lake Victoria.
The Vocational Training Center was established by Youth With A Mission, to help meet the growing needs caused by the spread of AIDS in the country, which has one of the highest incidences of the disease in Africa.
"The AIDS scourge is devastating the country, rendering many youngsters orphans and maiming the social structure so that most of the young generation is growing up without proper parental guidance," said national director Alphonse Rwiririza.
The area on which Hopeland has been developed had been vacant for years because of robberies and killings, until YWAM bought 25 acres of land - since extended to more than twice the size - in 1988.
At a recent celebration to mark the tenth anniversary of YWAM ministry in Uganda, a local council representative told how what had once been known as "a den of thieves" had since become a haven for producing good citizens.
During their 18 months at Hopeland, the VTS students - aged 13 to 18, and drawn from surrounding villages - follow a strict daily schedule of lessons and study, with work duties also on the adjoining Hopeland farm, developed to help support the center.
Hopeland is also home to AIDS teams that offer counseling and health education to nearby prisons and villages. While the rate of HIV infection has declined over recent years, up to 30 per cent of the population of some areas has the virus.
AIDS - which Ugandans have nicknamed "slim" for the way it makes the body waste away - had affected "every sector of society", said Rwririza, and even touched traditional beliefs and values. "In the past, it was felt that any problem could be handled within the extended family - now, however, as the adults die they leave behind more orphans than the extended family can continue to absorb." Many people lived in fear "either of infection, or that others will find out they are HIV positive". This meant that "apathy creeps into daily life, as people begin to feel hopeless, and that effort is worthless".
Despite this, "in the midst of despair people are more open to turn to God and to receive Christ," said Rwiririza, who added that most YWAM workers had either lost family members to AIDS, or had relatives who were HIV positive.
"We have seen much fruit through counseling. Many have found Christ. Although the future for people with HIV is bleak, by turning to God and living a positive, healthy lifestyle many are able to live longer and more fulfilled lives. AIDS can be a gateway for the gospel."
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