Lobby to promote safe sex on International Condom Day

Aids Healthcare Foundation will distribute free condoms during International Condom Day on February 13, 2018. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said it would distribute free condoms.
  • It urged people to practise safe sex to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and unplanned pregnancies.

The International Condom Day will be marked in Kilifi Tuesday, ahead of the Valentine’s Day, to promote safe sex.

Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global Aids organisation operating in 39 countries said it would promote prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and unplanned pregnancies through free condom distribution and safer sex awareness events.

CONDOMS

“AHF will activate over 50 ICD events worldwide. This year’s International Condom Day theme is, ‘Always in Fashion’,” AHF said in a statement.

The commemoration at Kibaoni grounds in Kilifi Town would include distribution of condoms and education, a dancing competition, art drawings and Mr and Miss County “king and queen modelling competition.”

AHF which started its operations in Kenya in 2007, distributed 4.8 million condoms and provided HIV testing services to 526,618 people last year.

In Mombasa, AHF did 41,976 HIV tests and distributed 259,572 condoms.

STRATEGY

“Consistent and proper use of condoms has been proven over time to be effective in the prevention of HIV infection by between 80-95 percent.

“It is an intervention that has been used and will always be used as both a primary HIV prevention strategy but also as part of the key HIV combination prevention. In this case, AHF believes that condoms are timeless and always in fashion,” AHF Kenya country director, Dr Samuel Kinyanjui said.

AHF chief of global policy, advocacy and marketing Terri Ford said “condoms are under attack in the realm of global public health with governments and international agencies slashing funds.”

“This will most likely lead to more infections worldwide-but thankfully, International Condom Day is a way to reinvigorate the message that condoms are a fun and a fashionable way to protect oneself and one’s partner while reinforcing the tenet that condoms should be available for free to anyone who needs them,” Ford said.

The AHF planned to unveil its 2018 International Condom Day song, “A Condom is always in Fashion.”