The Flavors of Safe Sex in South Africa
For awhile, the condoms delivered to non-profits in South Africa were plain. Simple.
But then came the condom fatigue. It was the young people, said workers at the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). Government-issued condoms are branded “Choice” in South Africa and were called smelly or just plain boring for sexually-active teens and young people.
TAC and others campaigned, resulting in four flavors for condoms: grape, strawberry, vanilla and banana. The condoms flavors were added in 2015.
TAC now gives out somewhere around one million condoms a month.
At the Wits Reproductive Health Institute’s sex worker clinic in the Hillbrow neighborhood of Johannesburg, there’s a storeroom with boxes stacked to the ceiling.
About 500,000 condoms fit into one small store room, stocked to the brim.
With the multiple boxes, there’s something like half a million condoms here.
They’ll last three months, give or take.
They’re not government condoms, but they’re a favorite — especially strawberry flavor.
The government-issued condoms that the sex worker clinic receives are the plain kind. They don’t do as well.
Reported.ly’s Kim Bui is currently in South Africa on a journalism fellowship from the International Reporting Project (IRP).
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