LOVE Condoms - 5¢ Saves a Life!
By: AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Los Angeles, CA - October 6, 2009
To achieve ‘Global AIDS Control’, an aggressive re-integration of condoms is critical to success. The goal of the LOVE Condoms Campaign is to scale-up to 100% access to free condoms, worldwide.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has been distributing free condoms worldwide for months (approximately 3 million distributed globally), and is now selling these popular LOVE Condoms to individuals in the US and Canada in order to demonstrate its commitment to achieving 100% condom access worldwide.
With the purchase of a pack of LOVE Condoms you commit to maintaining a healthy lifestyle as well as helping AIDS Healthcare Foundation achieve the goal of 100% access to free condoms worldwide.
Proceeds from your order today will be used to purchase additional LOVE Condoms for global distribution in communities where condom access is limited.
To support the campaign, go to www.LOVEcondoms.org and fill out an order form for Individuals.
Why are Condoms So Important for Global HIV and STD Control?
If global AIDS control is defined as an absolute reduction in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, then condoms are key to successfully achieving that goal. Treatment has played a crucial role in bringing hope to millions and in motivating masses of people to be tested. The huge success of the recent World AIDS Day - 1 Million Test campaign—during which men, women and children lined up across the globe to be tested—demonstrates that people want to know their status.
The formula for global AIDS control involves identifying those who are undiagnosed and linking them to treatment, which will render them less infectious. In addition, we must promote the most effective method for preventing the sexual transmission of HIV: condoms.
The aggressive integration of condoms into HIV prevention programs in the Netherlands and in Uganda was highly effective in bringing down the rate of new infections. Noting the community norm that existed in the gay community in the US in the 1980s, we know how effective condom promotion and distribution can be. We have witnessed how “abstinence-only” education has been in withholding honest information from young people and others, as well as the negative effect of religious influence on AIDS policy. Additionally, behavior modification programs targeting small groups of individuals have not proven to have a broad impact on new HIV infections.
It is time to bring back the CONDOM. Cultural, religious and political obstacles to condom promotion remain. Unlike treatment, there is no meaningful constituency supporting the widespread use of condoms. This must change.
Condoms cost about 5¢ each and are relatively easy to use. They are nearly almost 100% effective when used correctly. Various communities have had success in bringing about higher acceptance of condom use. Many studies show that most people who know they are positive want to protect their partners. Lack of availability of condoms and their retail cost are significant factors in failure to access and use condoms.
Combined efforts that include encouraging the widespread use of condoms, rapid testing and universal access to antiretroviral treatment will bring new infections down drastically. We can stop HIV/AIDS.
Let’s bring the CONDOM back into the equation. Lives are at stake.
