Condoms at last!

I was a little apprehensive about starting work with the third organisation I’m supposed to be attached to. There seems to be so much to keep me busy with each of the other two on their own but I was really excited when I turned up to Kwacha Kum’mawa and noticed boxes of condoms strewn across the office. Finally, a youth education project with a realistic grip on the situation.

I was even more excited when I accompanied a group of peer educators to Navatika (literally meaning ‘poverty’), a high density compound just north of town and they brought a wooden penis along for the show. Not a moment too soon I got to witness a much-needed condom demonstration. My only concern was that the guy doing the demo was wearing latex gloves…I’m not sure we got taught that one in sex ed lessons back in the UK? I asked around to find out why he was wearing them and someone mentioned he didn’t want to get the lubricant over his hands, another said people should wear gloves in case of sores on their hands which may make them vulnerable to HIV transmission. I’m yet to find out which it was but I find it hard to believe that young people are having sex whilst wearing gloves!

Still, it was obvious from the amount of children that had turned up to see the educational video we were showing in the middle of the market place that birth control, let alone HIV prevention, is in short supply.

Actually I couldn’t believe the number of children there must have been five or ten for every adult. I’m not sure why I was so surprised, apparently 50% of the population in Chipata are under 20. Unfortunately though, it did mean that the majority of the audience for our hard-hitting video about a family living with HIV, were under five years old. Apparently mothers can’t watch any remotely suggestive videos when their children are present. And in a place where many women are mothers by the time they are twenty, our messages didn’t quite make it to the intended target group. Having said that the peer educators did manage to distribute about 200 condoms and if only ten percent of them get used the trip was worth it.