Ye ye, I know all about the female condom

Published on 2009-06-23 by Ilze Smit

At the Programme Coordination Board meeting of UNAIDS in Genève, we are privileged to have a UAFC booth in the middle of the coffee room. Here we have the opportunity to discuss with the decision makers on the world’s AIDS policy the advantages of the female condom and the barriers to universal access.

If we ask the participants: “do you know about the female condom?” The answer we are getting is: “Ye ye, I know all about the female condom.” If we ask further: “do you know that there are different models? Do you know that the demand in Africa is enormous? That the female condom is highly acceptable? And that after fifteen years still only one female condom model is on the market that is not available.” No they do not know all that about the female condom.

Many questions they ask are about the prejudices that still exist, also within UNAIDS; one by one we try to answer them. Yes they are really safe, and unbreakable. Yes they are highly acceptable regarding more than fifty studies on acceptability. No they are not making any noise anymore because of the new material (nitrile instead of poly-urethane) that is used.

Fortunately there are also champions who are big supporters of the female condom, they know about the demand there is in Africa and the effects of the stock-outs. They are asking the question: why can it not be accessible for all those in need. We ask those champions to also become an advocate for the female condom because together advocating we can really make a change.

Today is the last day that we are answering the wide variety on questions and we hope that by this afternoon most participants will be able to say: ye ye, I know all about the female condom.

Knowledge Base

Countries in this article

Switzerland

Dates in this article

2009-06-23

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UAFC lobby paper

UAFC has developed a profound advocacy strategy in order to achieve acces to female condoms for all. For background on this strategy and to strengthen your own lobby activities you have access to this paper.

download the document

Breaking down the barriers!

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Ilze Smit of UAFC Joint Programme presented the session Female Condom Programming and Advocacy: Braking down the Barriers! at the NGO Forum ICPD+15.

read her weblog

see the photo's of the Forum

Trainings in Rwanda

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"In our daily work in HIV prevention and even in our sexual and reproductive life sessions with potential users, in trainings and advocay, we talk about female condoms as you can see in these photos. I'm pushing to include FC in our major advocay themes. It recently has been included in the Rwanda National NGO forum on AIDS for the four year strategic plan (2009/2012)," says Fortunée Twiyubahe from ACORD/Oxfam International in Rwanda.

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Knowledge base live

Part of our new website is the revolutionary knowledge base. This is a repository of concepts related to the main theme of UAFC, the female condom. This repository is organized according to themes, geographic location and time. We invite you to start exploring our knowledge base.

If you feel you have anything to contribute don't hesitate to contact us.

ACMS Website

In Cameroon the Association Camerounaise pour le Marketing (ACMS) works on making Female Condoms available to a large usersgroup. ACMS has its own website, with which it reaches especially young people.

Interview with Victoria Archibong, SFH

"I believe the introduction of the male condoms was relatively easier. This could be because it was easier to target men as the “dominant” party in relationships and the ones who will wear the condoms. There was also a lot of support from donors and IPs. The female condom is regarded more as a “woman thing”. Some men may feel threatened as the female condom will empower women in demonstrating their sexual and reproductive health rights. For Female condom programming, programmers have to be more creative and strategic."

read the interview

"I'm going to use mine"

"The male condom was promoted so hard in advertising, through school education and advocacy – we need the same effort for the female condom," said Farah Karimi, director of Oxfam-Novib at a press conference at the International AIDS Confernce in Mexico City. Mary Robinson, former President of the Republic of Ireland added: Girls and women need the skills to say, 'if you're not going to use yours then I'm going to use mine' to their sexual partners."

Read the article in Plusnews.

Empower women in Malawi

Sandra Mapemba, national condom programme coordinator at the Reproductive Health Unit (RHU) in the Ministry of Health in Malawi, believes the female condom will empower women to have more control in their sexual relationships, help them protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, as well as unwanted pregnancies.