Great American Condom Campaign applications now being accepted

Just passing the word along from our friends at Advocates for Youth:

Advocates for Youth is excited to announce SafeSite applications for the Great American Condom Campaign are now open! The GACC is a youth-led grassroots movement to make the United States a sexually healthy nation. To do this, college students apply to become SafeSites, or individual condom distribution points. Once selected, SafeSites receive a free box of 500 Trojan condoms to distribute to their peers. For more information or to apply, go to www.amplifyyourvoice.org/gacc.

Applications close January 3, 2010.

photo credit: trec_lit on flickr

Advocates for Youth accepting applications for Great American Condom Campaign!

Advocates for Youth is now accepting applications for Great American Condom Campaign (GACC) SafesSites! The GACC is a youth-led grassroots movement to reduce unintended pregnancies and the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections by normalizing condom use on college and university campuses. Students from across the country apply to become SafeSites, or individual condom distribution points. Once selected, SafeSites receive a box of 500 Trojan condoms to distribute to their peers. Applications are due September 27, 2009. To apply, go to http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/GACCApply. If you have any questions, contact Sarah at gacc@advocatesforyouth.org.

International Stage Making Breakthroughs for Women

Though many of us are a little bummed out with the loss of one of the world's greatest entertainers and a true global humanitarian, MJ's legacy in advocating for change in this world is not in vain. How so you might ask? Well lets take a look at some recent breakthroughs for women in the world:

Last week, Marrakech, one of Morocco's biggest cities and largest tourist sites, elected its first female mayor, Fatima Zahra Mansouri. She out polled incumbent Mayor Omar Jazouli 54 to 35 votes in the municipal council. This makes newly-elected Mayor Mansouri the second woman in the country's history to take up a mayorial seat. The 33-year-old lawyer representing the Party of Authenticity & Modernity (PAM) is looking forward to the challenge of leading one of Morocco's greatest cities and we applaud her strength and courage. ROCK ON MAYOR MANSOURI!!! Thanks for paving the way for women in the world!

Next up, in Uganda, the government is currently making plans to reintroduce and promote the usage of female condoms as a critical tool for HIV/AIDS prevention this coming fall. Two US-based organizations, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM) met with some of Kampala's local leaders for "advocacy training targeted at donors and national government to ensure successful reintroduction of female condoms" in the country. Of the participants and those leading the training were Mr. Benard Mujuni of the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, members of the Health Development Partnership Group and UNFPA, and the Ministry of Health.

In 2000, female condoms were first introduced into the country but was unsuccessful in sustaining support for distribution, education, and accessibility. Now governmental officials and local leaders are committing themselves to finding new solutions in promoting acceptibility and usage of female condoms and other methods of prevention. Two snaps and a fist bump for the Ugandan government placing reproductive health and women's rights in the center of their HIV/AIDS prevention efforts!

See, the world can get better...and it will get better--one person at a time.

Peace.

Unlocking Condom Cases at CVS

For teens and adults alike, it is awkward enough walking through CVS to grab a pack of condoms, but imagine needing to ask an employee to find a key to unlock the condom case! CVS has locked condom cases in stores nationwide, exacerbating this awkwardness, undoubtedly causing people who had planned to be careful in their sexual practices to second guess the need to buy them out of fear of shame.

In a time when sexual education has been practically eliminated in many public schools, and the rates of STIs and HIV/AIDS are skyrocketing (especially in Washington, DC), there is no reason for condoms to be difficult to access.

Six FMF interns and I braved the DC metro yesterday to attend a rally in front of CVS in Dupont Circle. The rally supported the Cure CVS initiative to stop CVS from locking up condom cases. Speakers ranging from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, came to the rally to fight for this cause, and speak about safe family planning. While CVS might argue that locking condom cases is a method of theft prevention, speakers from Los Angeles who had sampled CVS stores in East Los Angeles found that 75% of locked cases were in neighborhoods that were predominantly African American or Latino, insinuating racial slurs.

Additionally, speakers mentioned how the language barrier might prevent Latinos and other ethnicities whose first language is not English from being able to buy condoms. Skeptics of this campaign argue that we take our business elsewhere, to RiteAid, Walgreens, etc, but many of these stores are not open 24 hours a day like many CVS stores are.

Locking up condoms leads to larger public problems that I am not sure that CVS understands. Unwanted pregnancies that might arise from lack of accessibility to condoms might lead to the want/need for abortion, which automatically becomes a political issue. The risk of contracting HIV/AIDS from not wearing condoms also leads to health care issues and extraordinary medical bills. We live in a society that understands the importance of condoms, and there is no need for CVS to continue blocking their access.

Rally Today: Unlock the Condoms at CVS

There is a rally scheduled for today at 12:30 at the CVS at 6 Dupont Circle in D.C. Never fear, there will be plenty of protection... but you may have to ask for it. In fact, that is precisely what this rally is about. According to the Washington Business Journal, this is a part of the "Cure CVS: Unlock the Condoms" initiative.

After five minutes of solid thinking, the only defense that I have come up with for CVS is that maybe the condoms present a choking hazard for children rummaging around the store and opening things up? In that case, I would like to see balloons, rubber gloves, and anything smaller than a child's fist locked up, too. Seriously, that is the only reason that I can dream up.

According to the EarthTimes, individuals involved in this initiative have concluded that the condoms are locked up more frequently in areas with higher instances of HIV/AIDS. If that is actually a fact, then I am personally appalled and horrified by CVS, and you should be, too. There is going to be a press conference at the rally where members of the initiative will release a letter that asks CVS to create a policy to ensure that condoms are unlocked in all of its stores.

If we are silent about the issue of locking up condoms, who knows where this could lead? Anyway, you should go out to this rally to support the the right to easily accessible contraceptives! If they refuse, Walgreens is right down the road, and their condoms are right on the shelf...

If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact campusteam@feminist.org.