At the International Harm Reduction Conference in Beirut

Published on 2011-04-11 by Sille Jansen

Right now, my colleague and I are at the International Harm Reduction Conference in Beirut, Lebanon. The first thing that may come to mind is: Wow, Beirut, the weather must be great! At least that is what I thought when getting on the plane in Amsterdam on Friday. Yet, it seems that rainclouds also have taken a serious interest in Harm Reduction.

Two points that reduce our harm: the food is great and the conference is largely taking place underground. The conference is at the Habtoor hotel, a giant hotel in a fancy part of Beirut with a dome (kind of like the Versaille piramid but than in a round shape – like a see-through ice-cream scoop). At the lower floor of this dome – in fact underground – you will find the Universal Access to Female Condom booth. From here, no rain clouds can be seen and one can just pretend the sun is shining. The booth is truly very nice, decorated with a poster (Take control – protect yourself and your partners – use the female condom), different types of female condoms, and two lovely ladies in red t-shirts who explain everything there is to know about female condoms.

Now, what is this booth doing at a Harm Reduction Conference? To most people – including people who use drugs – sex is a very pleasurable experience. That is why people who use drugs run the regular risks when having this pleasurable experience: becoming pregnant unwantedly and getting STI's such as HIV/AIDS. In fact, the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst people who use drugs happens mainly through unprotected sex. And having safe sex is often a challenge, also for people using drugs.

That is why we think the female condom should be an integral part of harm reduction programmes. With this fantastic product – of which different varieties are now available (see:condoms4all.org) – women can take control and protect themselves and relax while having sex. Not only does the female condom protect against the same STI's as the male condom – it even protects you better against herpes and syphilis than the male condom, because it protects the outside of the vagina.

What is so great about this conference is that the vast majority of people are really very interested and curious about the different types of female condoms. Some participants have never seen a female condom before and didn't even know it existed. We have explained and demonstrated the female condoms all day – and I must say I am rather exhausted. MaybeI will dream about female condoms tonight...Or maybe just about the sun shining :)

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2011-04-05

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UAFC lobby paper

UAFC has developed a profound advocacy strategy in order to achieve acces to female condoms for all. For background on this strategy and to strengthen your own lobby activities you have access to this paper.

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Breaking down the barriers!

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Ilze Smit of UAFC Joint Programme presented the session Female Condom Programming and Advocacy: Braking down the Barriers! at the NGO Forum ICPD+15.

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see the photo's of the Forum

Trainings in Rwanda

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"In our daily work in HIV prevention and even in our sexual and reproductive life sessions with potential users, in trainings and advocay, we talk about female condoms as you can see in these photos. I'm pushing to include FC in our major advocay themes. It recently has been included in the Rwanda National NGO forum on AIDS for the four year strategic plan (2009/2012)," says Fortunée Twiyubahe from ACORD/Oxfam International in Rwanda.

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Part of our new website is the revolutionary knowledge base. This is a repository of concepts related to the main theme of UAFC, the female condom. This repository is organized according to themes, geographic location and time. We invite you to start exploring our knowledge base.

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ACMS Website

In Cameroon the Association Camerounaise pour le Marketing (ACMS) works on making Female Condoms available to a large usersgroup. ACMS has its own website, with which it reaches especially young people.

Interview with Victoria Archibong, SFH

"I believe the introduction of the male condoms was relatively easier. This could be because it was easier to target men as the “dominant” party in relationships and the ones who will wear the condoms. There was also a lot of support from donors and IPs. The female condom is regarded more as a “woman thing”. Some men may feel threatened as the female condom will empower women in demonstrating their sexual and reproductive health rights. For Female condom programming, programmers have to be more creative and strategic."

read the interview

"I'm going to use mine"

"The male condom was promoted so hard in advertising, through school education and advocacy – we need the same effort for the female condom," said Farah Karimi, director of Oxfam-Novib at a press conference at the International AIDS Confernce in Mexico City. Mary Robinson, former President of the Republic of Ireland added: Girls and women need the skills to say, 'if you're not going to use yours then I'm going to use mine' to their sexual partners."

Read the article in Plusnews.

Empower women in Malawi

Sandra Mapemba, national condom programme coordinator at the Reproductive Health Unit (RHU) in the Ministry of Health in Malawi, believes the female condom will empower women to have more control in their sexual relationships, help them protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, as well as unwanted pregnancies.