The condom ad, condom dispenser; what works in the Fight against HIV/AIDs

While in college, a while ago though I am informed by credible sources that the time is neigh and I am just about to receive the powers to read, I belonged to a Behavior Change and Communication Group (BCCG). In joining I Choose Life-Maseno Chapter I had not only submitted to my altruistic self but I had the noble goal of reducing the proliferation of miss-information with regards to HIV/AIDS and other reproductive health concerns especially so amongst a sexually active university studentship. Whereas I, at least had my eyes on the prize, and remained focused to what we stood for, I could not help but wonder whether what we were doing was working.

In Maseno University, for example I know for once that Condoms dispensers were available at almost all halls of residence and other strategic places like the University dispensary. Although a superficial examination of the practice would summarily gloss over the practice, I would not help but wonder whether that worked. I for one know that most campus students generally gave the brand of Condoms ‘Sure’ at the condom dispensers a wide bath preferring commercial brands like trust or Femiplan during coitus. Thus the condom dispensers were always stocked, save for some few weeks especially at the end of the semester.

Through my travails I visited a Nigerian University in Kaduna State ‘the famous Ahmadu Bello University apparently the biggest University in sub-Saharan Africa or so I was told’. Thus I was in a position to juxtapose the strategies of fighting the HIV/Aids scourge. Within the context of its environment famous Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) nestled deep in Northern Nigeria which is a region which runs on Sharia law, glaring differences to an anti HIV/AIDs strategy.

In ABU for example I know that Condom Dispensers do not exist and fronting a case for their existence would be tantamount to performing moral suicide. However emblazoned on various walls and boards were signs such as; ‘run for gold not for Aids, (A)bstain (B)e faithful (C)ontrol (D)iscipline’ the glaring is in the (C) which would stand for Condoms in Kenya and the (D) would be non existent.

Whereas the debate has raged on about dress codes in has be an emotive issue in Kenya, ABU has I a strict dress code which prohibits; mini-skirts, rugged jeans, sagging trousers, and bare back tops amongst other things. I for example, who suffers from the lack of a pronounced waistline was accused of sagging almost every other time, but I got away with it for the fact of being a foreigner. ABU has sign boards that have messages like ‘Decent Dressing is Devine Injunction.
Of course coming from a very secular environment which characterizes most

Institutions of Higher learning in Kenya I was in for a bout of Culture Shock.
Now that I am back in Kenya I can’t not help but wonder what works. At this point I would like to allude to a Tanzanian Condom advert where a Maasai father with a gorgeous beautiful girl, the Maasai father decides to hold a jumping competition for young morans to decide who was going to get betrothed to his beautiful daughter. In the ad there are typical Maasai’s who can jump real high and a fake Maasai from Dar who can barely jump, on his second jump a pack of Salama Condoms falls, the other Moran’s laugh at which point the father of the beauty comes up and holds the fake Maasai’s by the shoulder and says, ‘kama ni hivyo huyu kijana ndiye ni machagua aende na msishana yangu maana anajijua.”