Condom Distribution Campaign: Part One

While I primarily work with the Red Cross (RC) and schools within Sefhare, I am a community volunteer, and try to work with as many institutions within Sefhare that I can. One of those institutions is the hospital in my town, the Sefhare Primary Hospital.

Because of the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Botswana, all health clinics and hospitals provide free condoms to Batswana. Most clinics run out of condoms quickly, however, because Sefhare has a hospital (which provides condoms to clinics), the condom supply is plentiful. However, in Sefhare, the hospital is on the edge of town. This provides several problems for community members regarding the ease of access to free condoms. First, many people don’t want to travel that far to have access to free condoms. They also don’t want to spend money on condoms. Therefore, they have sex without condoms. Second, people are afraid (specifically youth) that if they go to the hospital, family members or people they know in the community will see them taking condoms. Thus, they have sex without condoms. As a result of these factors, one of my first projects with the Red Cross was to tap into the resources at the hospital and start a condom distribution campaign in Sefhare.  

The condom distribution campaign started in April. Part of the agreement between the Red Cross, the Primary Hospital, and myself was that if we (the Red Cross and I) were going to distribute condoms in Sefhare, the hospital wanted a record of where the condoms were being used. Therefore, at the beginning of the month, each institution was given a box of condoms and a record sheet to track the number of condoms distributed. The record sheet tracked whether the person collecting the condoms was male or female, youth or adult, and the number of condoms collected. Condoms were packaged in newspaper in packets of six at the Red Cross office. Condoms were distributed to eleven institutions around Sefhare. Most were in areas of high community traffic flow, such as a local bar, the immigration office, and the local Ministry of Parliament’s office. During the month of April, I helped distributed 2,788 condoms to residents in the town of Sefhare.

Almost immediately, several challenges presented themselves. First, there was the challenge of recording the number of condoms distributed. At each institution the Red Cross visited, a contact person was chosen to keep a record of the condoms that were being taken. However, some institutions had trouble recording the number of condoms taken. For example, about a week after the RC dropped the first box of condoms to the Sefhare Land Board, the box was almost empty, yet only two people had recorded the condoms they had taken. One reason for this was that the contact person was often away from her desk and could not accurately track all of the condoms being taken. A secondary reason was that people were uncomfortable writing down themselves that they had taken condoms. This was resolved with a conversation with several of the Land Board staff reinforcing the need to track condoms for monitoring and evaluating purposes, and that if they continued to not track condoms, the RC would not keep supplying. When the Land Board received their second box, the number of condoms distributed was more accurately tracked. 

A second problem was communication. When each institution was given their box, they were told to call the Red Cross when a new box was needed. However, several institutions did not call to request more condoms when they were out. For example, the Sefhare Primary School went through their box of condoms within three days, yet no one called to request a new box. A follow-up discussion was made with the institutions that had difficulty calling to request new condoms, and the responsibility of the contact person to call and request more condoms was further emphasized.

The last problem (and biggest) was transportation and supply. There were several institutions that distributed condoms at a rapid rate, however RC supply was inadequate to keep up with the demand. In addition, for most of April, the Red Cross combi did not have petrol, and was unable to help pick up condoms from the hospital and transport them to the different institutions. Furthermore, because of holiday breaks, the combi was unavailable to assist in condom distribution and collection. These problems persisted up until July, at which point I scheduled an appointment with the hospital to resolve the transportation and supply problems.

To resolve the problems with transportation and supply and communication, I approached the hospital with the following solution: At the beginning of each month, one member from the Red Cross will accompany the hospital car as it drives through Sefhare to drop off condoms. The number of boxes of condoms dropped off at each institution will be based on an estimated amount that the organization will go through during the month. For example, the Immigration Office went through about four boxes of condoms for the month. Therefore, at the beginning of the month four boxes of condoms will be dropped off. This will cut down on transportation time to the different institutions, as well as keep institutions supplied with condoms, so they don’t need to constantly call RC. 

In addition, an added benefit to the hospital taking over transportation will ensure that the project remains sustainable on both the hospital side and the Red Cross side. A sustainability problem I had was that my Field Officer and counterpart in the project was transferred to Gaborone, and therefore could not continue the project when I was away for trainings and workshops. Thus, organizations did not receive condoms for most of May, June and July. On the plus side, institutions we had supplied with condoms kept calling and requested more condoms because the demand for them was high. This let me know that condom distribution within Sefhare was needed and people were using the condoms. Thus, in order to ensure sustainability, the hospital will be in more control over the condom distribution process by providing distribution of the condoms, while Red Cross will be in charge of monitoring condom distribution. This will ensure that even after I leave, the project will be sustainable, as I have trained Red Cross members in tracking the numbers of condoms distributed in Sefhare.

The condom distribution campaign is the first project in Sefhare that I carried out as part of my Peace Corps service. I had helped on projects at the Red Cross before, but never had I spearheaded one myself. I am proud of the impact that it has had on the community and the direct effect it will have on promoting safer sex practices for youth and adults of both genders. In future blog articles, I will post results of the condom distribution campaign from different months so you can all see the allocation of condom use in Sefhare.