Gate - the The development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC)

Some of the people who are uninterested, or negative, toward condom distribution express views
that are not directly based on religious concerns. A person in a government office told the
interviewers that:
However, on the question of condom use,[ the administrator's] attitude seems to be that awareness
campaigns has to be considerably stepped down because enough
campaigns had been mounted in the past. As the [administrator] summarized the
feeling: “Enough has been said about condom. I personally believe that sufficient
awareness has been created. Those who will use it will use it. Those who will not use will
never use it”.
In some locations where condom promotion was supposed to be active, the supplies of condoms
were temporarily unavailable:
Informant at a rural government hospital: "No social marketing of condoms for now." She showed
us the empty cartons of condoms, that had been used in the past.
She informed us that condom promotion is central to their HIV/AIDS activities.
The attitude of the Catholic Church toward contraception and condoms is, of course, well known.
So it is expectable that the very active HIV/AIDS programs at CACA would not include condom
promotion. When our interviewers visited the CACA people, they found that there is considerable
ambiguity and soul-searching among their workers:
The informant reported that “CACA is aware of condom use and the high degree of safety. It is also
aware of the failure rate.” Then he continued “CACA gives adequate information about condom
“and I mean adequate in terms of adequate”. CACA tells people the good and the bad side of
condom but it does not distribute or promote condoms. He then described a seminar that was
organized for the youths. The participants were asked to write down their questions. About 80% of
them asked question pertaining to condoms. Four weeks ago [November], there was another
seminar in which
the right way to use condom was practically demonstrated, using a dummy penis. He further added
that “though we promote fidelity for married couples and abstinence
for unmarried ones, we have departed from those days when people were shy about talking about
the condom”. Then he continued that for moral and ethical considerations, “there is need for us to
handle the issue with great care”
We do not have a full inventory of organizations that are actively promoting condom use, including
condom distribution. However, two organizations are interesting examples of that orientation:
48