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Female condom popular in Zimbabwe - Numbers show true picture
Kathryn Bice
August 05, 2010

The female condom has come in for some criticism in the media in Zimbabwe in recent months, but experienced advocates are convinced that it is a product strongly desired by Zimbabwe citizens and a vital weapon in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Critics have claimed that women do not want the female condom because it is too big, noisy and difficult to insert.

Not so, says Mrs Patience Kunaka, the communications manager for PSI Zimbabwe, which distributes the FC Female Condom, branded as care, through private sector channels in Zimbabwe. PSI, or Population Services International, is a non-profit organization that works to make health and population control products and services more available in low-income areas of the world.

The number of female condoms distributed by PSI grew from 455,556 in 2001, when they were launched, to more than 3 million in 2008, before declining slightly last year due to Zimbabwe-s economic problems.

As well as care, the FC Female Condom is distributed free of charge as the unbranded Femidom by the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, an arm of the Ministry of Health, through government institutions such as clinics, tertiary institutions and government offices.

Such numbers are proof that demand for the female condom is fundamentally strong and rising, Mrs Kunaka said.

The key is "education and outreach", she said. "PSI has a highly targeted program. We believe that distribution should be backed up with interpersonal communication. People we have reached out to are very happy to use the female condom."

The perception that the female condom is too big is sometimes due to the fact that "some people have poor understanding of the female anatomy," she said. "People who have been exposed to it have no such worries because they know the female condom fits well as it lines the contours of the vagina."

The FC Female Condom is a tube-shaped sheath about as long as a male condom but slightly wider so that it lines a woman-s vagina comfortably.

The FC Female Condom has a small ring at one end that fits inside the vagina and keeps the condom in place and, according to some users, gives enhanced pleasure. It also has a larger ring that stays outside and covers part of the woman-s genitalia and the base of the man-s penis, giving extra protection from sexually transmitted infections.

Mrs Kunaka got some backing from an unexpected source recently when the advice doctor in US Glamour magazine, Dr Kate O-Connell, wrote that when she tried the female condom, inserting it "wasn-t as tricky" as she expected.

Dr O-Connell also commented that although it made "a little squishy sound, it wasn-t distractingly loud," and that she probably noticed it only because she had her ears open for noise.

PSI socially markets care through hair salons and barber shops, pharmacies, private health care institutions, support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS, and networks of sex workers.

Priced at 20 US cents for a packet of two, it is "attractively packaged and positioned for women who are confident and care about themselves and their partners," Mrs Kunaka said.

The internationally recognized hair salons initiative has been so successful that Botswana is considering replicating the model.

"We continue to recruit hairdressers and provide structured training and support for them to sell the female condom and to teach women condom negotiation skills and how to use it correctly," Mrs Kunaka said.

"When the clients go in for a hairdo, they have a chance to talk to the hairdresser about how to use the female condom, and the hairdresser can teach them."

Mrs Kunaka said the decline in consumption of female condoms in 2009 was due to Zimbabwe-s economic challenges, which include unemployment and effects of the 2008 inflation.

"The hair salons are our major channel, but they have been badly affected by the economic problems," she said.

"We have water shortages and power outages, which make it difficult for salons to operate. Some are opening for shorter hours and some are closing altogether.

"We are moving to a situation where some hair dressers rent a chair in a salon, and with rents going up they might have to move at any time, so they don-t have anywhere to store their condoms."

The economy has also been "dollarized", with the US dollar being used for many transactions.

"We don-t have a 10 cent denomination, which makes it hard for people to buy their condoms because they don-t have these smaller denominations", Mrs Kunaka said.

"To enable women to access the product, clients are encouraged to buy amounts costing a dollar which is the readily available denomination.

"But we still have a lot of confidence in the hair salon channel. We try to take advantage of the conducive environment, and provide the distributors with branded aprons, towels, floor boards and racks to display the condoms and posters that show the hairdressers posing with different hair styles."

Ministry of Health and Child Welfare figures put Zimbabwe-s adult HIV prevalence rate at 13.7 percent in 2009, down from 18.1 percent two years previously. The female condom remains an important weapon in the fight against the epidemic.

"The female condom is very important because it gives women a chance to play a role in HIV prevention at the family level," Mrs Kunaka said.

"Women say they feel safe, because they can buy and put it on themselves, so they are sure the condom is there to protect them."

But an underlying problem is the gender inequality in Zimbabwean society.

"When you look at our culture, it is the men who make the sexual decisions. It is very hard for married women to negotiate condom use. In fact women who are in less regular relationships actually have more chance to negotiate," Mrs Kunaka said.

"In the past there has been a stigma attached to being seen buying a female condom. There was a perception that condoms were for people of loose morals. We position it as a family planning product to married women, and that has successfully overcome the stigma."

PSI has also increased its efforts to sell the female condom to men.

"We have expanded our barbers- network, because we hope they get to talk to as many men as possible. If men can also buy the condom for their partners, then many more women will be able to protect themselves."

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