Want to Help Uganda? Send Condoms

by Jina Moore · 2010-07-01 04:40:00 UTC
Topics:

Uganda's got a condom shortage, and in a country with a high HIV infection rate, that's not just a corner store inconvenience. That's a public health crisis waiting to be recognized.

"If all men were to use condoms," says Ugandan Dr. Moses Muwonge, "each would get a ration of three."

Uganda's New Vision reports that 95% of the country's contraceptives are paid for by donors. But at this point, AIDS patients newly in need of ARVs are learning the hard way what life is like when donors change priorities. So it's a double slap in the face that, as donors stop funding AIDS treatments, the country is having a difficult time getting its hands on condoms, too. Condoms that — say it with me now — help prevent the spread of AIDS.

The kicker is that Ugandans actually want condoms. After years of public awareness campaigns (at the behest of, yes, donor communities) that aimed to curb AIDS rates and unwanted pregnancies by making condom usage universal, Ugandans have gotten the message. The New Vision says Ugandans use 20 million condoms a month, half of those given out for free by the health ministry.

Thanks to condoms, women have been taking the opportunity to flex their independence in family planning. A 2006 survey by the Ugandan government found that 41% of married women don't want to have more children, period, and another 35% wanted to space out their births and wait at least two years before having another child.

President Yoweri Museveni, not necessarily known lately for his visionary response to public policy challenges, doesn't suggest that the country should find a way to meet the demand for contraceptives. Instead, he says, women should just have more kids. More babies, Museveni reasons, means more workers on the one hand and more consumers on the other, which means higher GDP, development and all that other good stuff. Population is a resource to be exploited! Hmmm...

For the record, access to condoms in Uganda isn't a new problem; I remember reading similar articles when I was in Kampala in 2008. When it comes to condoms, Ugandan and international efforts overcame the first hurdle associated with the product — getting people to use them. It would be a shame if a supply problem undid that progress.

Photo Credit: paul keller

Jina Moore is a professional journalist and correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor whose work also appears in Newsweek, The Boston Globe and Best American Science Writing. Read more at http://www.jinamoore.com/.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Are We Becoming Desensitized to Police Brutality?
NEXT STORY:
Campaign about Apple Factories in China Gains Wide and Diverse Support

COMMENTS (3)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.