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Half a million female condoms arrived in Lagos, Nigeria

A Dutch TV crew and UAFC staff visited Nigeria from 28th October until 1st of November 2009. Objectives were to gather information and film the chain of female condoms: from the warehouse to the hairdresser shops. Filming in Lagos which has an estimated population of 12 million people during the midst of a tropical rain shower is not easy but we managed to visit various outlets and speak with master trainers and interpersonal communication conductors. The presence of the camera team and Oxfam Novib’s general director Ms Farah Karimi meant that this was not an ordinary duty trip. Rather it gave us the opportunity to speak with implementers and potential users. Many of them were okay with the fact that they were being filmed or interviewed, or both. The material will be used for a Dutch TV programme that gives its audience a look behind the scenes. In this case it meant a look at the UAFC programme in Nigeria.

The master trainers train volunteers who take it upon themselves to reach out to more than 40 persons each week, which is a pretty steep target for a volunteer. The ones we met though seemed really committed to do so. The volunteers are hairdressers, traders, teachers, students, health care workers etc. They go to places where potential users gather, in markets, community centres, schools, beauty parlours and engage with women and men on the benefits and usage of female condoms. Their approach is open and spontaneous: they use information flip charts to explain about the benefits, the need for child spacing and prevention of HIV infections and other STIs. But also less well known benefits are discussed, such as the fact that you can insert a female condom hours before you have sex. ‘So give yourself time to get used to it and make you ready for sex’, put it in a few hours before your husband comes home, do some housework and your ready for some action’! It works fine for me, explains one of the conductors to a group of young women that were interrupted in the market place, while having their nails polished. The volunteers use their own experience as one lady explains that she has been living ‘positively’ for ten years and has now convinced her husband to use female condoms.

Next to the ordinary shops the volunteers also make sure that people at risk, such as sex workers are informed about the availability of female condoms in their communities. That is why two young male volunteers approached a brothel in Benin City and talked to the young women working there. They are strongly advised to use a new female condom for each round of sex they are having. The volunteers encourage the usage and inform the women that they will appreciate their feedback on the product and its usage. So they can adjust the information they are using.
At this very moment, 500.000 female condoms are being distributed into the supply chain system of Society of Family Health (SFH), the lead organisation in the Universal Access to Female Condoms Joint Programme in Nigeria. From the warehouse in Lagos, the condoms are taken to depots in Lagos, Delta and Edo states, from where they are transported to the many small outlets; chemists shops, hairdressers, beauty parlours, drug stores etc. Volunteers direct potential users to the selling points and SFH are able to manage and monitor the uptake and supply the chain with condoms.  

The next batch of female condoms is expected in December, and the third one in February 2010. Master trainers and volunteers convince us that demand is really there, ‘other states are already knocking on our door….’.

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