ALFRED TEMBO writes
THE protracted time it takes to insert female condoms before sex has made them unpopular and a detriment to birth control scheme among Eastern Province women, it has been learnt.
Chisomo Community director Annie Chiseni said as a result, out of 2,000 female condoms only 300 were distributed by her office in 2018.
“Many women talked to say it takes long to insert a female condom into the private part before sex and this has slowed down popularity of birth control scheme in the region,” said Ms Chiseni.
Chisomo, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) was currently working with immigrants, sex workers, and young people to promote Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) programme.
Ms. Chiseni said the women were now encouraging men instead to use condoms before sex owing to the short time it took to wear the protective ware.
Speaking in an interview with the Sun, Ms Chiseni said the low up take of female condoms was understood citing the long time it took to insert the condom to ‘disturbing noise’ when making love.
“Myths are associated with female condoms are that most the sheaths are not comfortable and that they make noise when making love,
“One other thing, men claim that some women especially sex workers may be re-using the female condoms which posed a risk to them, but this claim is not correct,” she said
Ms Chiseni explained that sex workers had been trained how to use the female condom which should not be used more than once.
“But from our 2018 last quarter report, we distributed about 300 condoms from the 2,000 we had in our stock. We have since realised that we need to sensitise our women to accept a female condoms which are good for them,” she said
Meanwhile, Ms Chiseni attributed the increase in demand of male condoms in the region to the extensive dissemination of correct information through the SRHR.
“As an organisation we are happy with the increase in condom use in the province, it shows us that people are receptive to the many informative engagements we are having through training workshops, meetings with traditional leaders, the public and various other interventions in collaboration with government and other stakeholders,” she said.
