Youth appeal to govt over employers asking for HIV status results
By prossy Kisakye
Youths living with HIV/AIDs have appealed to the government to come up with policies prohibiting employers from asking for HIV status results before employing them.
The group was led by Jayson Yiga, a 21-year-old who was born with HIV. Yiga says many of his colleagues who are HIV positive have applied for jobs in factories, warehouse among other workplaces but employers ask for their HIV results before being given an opportunity.
He says this has left his colleagues jobless and some have resorted to forging results so as to be employed.
Yiga revealed this during the 20th anniversary of Uganda’s Network of Young People Living with HIV/ AIDs (UNYPA), a non-government organization that was established in 2003 with the aim of providing leadership and coordination of the greater and meaningful involvement of young people living with HIV in Uganda.
He says since his childhood, he has been challenged by stigma in communities and this has hindered many of his colleagues from achieving their goals, but says UNYPA has helped him to fight discrimination.
