In 2018, fourteen men requested and/or were prescribed
condoms from our clinic. In 2019, this
increased to 685 men! In a machismo
culture this is wonderful!
How did this happen?
Public education.
It used to be that the most condoms we handed out at the Nueva Vida Clinic were to
partners of women being treated for sexually transmitted infections or to the
small transgender community which include those who earn their money for food by being sex
workers.
Now more men and older teenagers are coming in for
condoms. We have a man, Emir, who is
helping with our health promotion work while our own health promoter, Jessenia,
a woman, is struggling with failing kidneys.
Each gender and person have their own strengths. Jessenia* reached out to the small
transgender community and they use our clinic as a safe clinic with
professionals who give them respect.
Jessenia worked so well with women while Emir is reaching young and
older men and teaching them to take responsibility.
Both Jessenia and Emir are great with both sexes but women
gravitate to Jessenia and men to Emir.
The fact that our condom outreach has increased 48 times is amazing.
-Kathleen
*A short story: a
good friend of ours encouraged Trojan condoms to donate 1,000 condoms to our
clinic many years ago. Unfortunately,
the condoms were all extra-large. In one
staff meeting, Jessenia commented that she had no idea what to do with these
condoms because they were too large for the men who were using our clinic. We laughed and made jokes of what we could do
with them.
At the next staff meeting Jessenia reported that a man
stopped her on the street in Nueva Vida and embarrassingly whispered to her of
his problem of finding condoms large enough for him. Jessenia reported that she gleefully said,
“Have we got a deal for you!” The
condoms were used appropriately! 😊
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