Consolidating my dream

Published on 2011-05-23 by Annet Neijmeijer

Yvonne Bogaarts, member of the International Steering Committee, writes about her visit to Cameroon.

Yesterday, May 9 I flew to Cameroon for the meeting of the international steering committee of the UAFC joint Programme. My first time ever to a country in the western part of Africa. And with a suitcase full of clothes and shoes as we will have a lot of official meetings during the visit. The first impressions at the airport is about all these men wanting to carry my suitcase, ofcourse also wanting a tip, but I only have a 50 euro billet in my purse. So anyone coming also for the first time: bring some euro coins with you! In a packed van to the hotel and looking to the condition of the road, the traffic, the shops and small stalls along the way, all those people on the streets. Ofcourse it is different from the countries were I've lived before, but it also feels so familiar and so good!

Today the meeting was officially opened by the Minister of Public Health from Cameroon. We heard that he even postponed his trip to Rome, in order to officially open our meeting. Isn't that fantastic?! This shows the big commitment of the government towards female condoms. The meeting room is decorated with pink banners with 'je prends les choses en mains' and a specially made banner for the 2nd annual meeting of the steering group. It is just an example of how nicely organised this whole visit is.
For me it is simply wonderful to be here and see how far we have come: starting from this wild idea, this dream, somewhere at the end of 2006 that we should work on female condoms. Then the collaboration with Oxfam Novib, and gradully building up the UAFC Joint Programme. And now this dream, 'my baby' has grown into a programme which sold almost 800,000 female condoms in a year. Coming from some 18,000 in 2007. I think it is just fantastic! And I've been repeating that message tonight with some prospective donors during the dinner tonight: there is only one device which women can use, which prevents unwanted pregnancy and hiv, and that is the female condom!

Before I forget, one message that I will definitely take home: ofcourse ACMS paid a lot of attention to formulating the message, but there has been no resistance at all from men towards the female condom.

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Tags for this article

ACMS

Advocacy

Cameroon

International Platform

International policy

Dates in this article

2011-05-09

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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.

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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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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.

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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.