Prevention is still the best medicine. Condom social marketing campaign changes attitudes and actions in Guinea

Hess, L.L.

Front Lines 33(8): 1-2

1993


PMID: 12288836
Document Number: 527858
In Guinea, jingles promoting Prudence condoms are heard on radio and television in 4 different national languages 5 times a day. This has produced an attitudinal change through an intense national media campaign orchestrated by the USAID-financed Social Marketing of Contraceptives Project carried out by Population Services International (PSI), which provides family planning information, products and services through public and private outlets for 500,000 sexually active couples. PSI's paid media campaign has sponsored call-in talk shows on women and AIDS and religion and AIDS at the rural radio station in Labe. Billboards placed in key locations remind people that using condoms helps prevent AIDS. PSI organized a team of 10 Prudence condom marketing agents in March 1992 to establish 400 nontraditional retail and 50 traditional retail and wholesale outlets for condoms. Outlets include pharmacies, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and nightclubs. The distributors sell the condoms at a profit. In the first 6 months, PSI distributed 2.3 million condoms. Young women want to space their children and limit the number of children, said the chief midwife for the Guinean Association for Family Well Being clinic in Conakry. Guinea's population growth rate is 2.8%, which will result in a doubling of the population in 25 years. In May 1992, Guinea's government ratified a national population policy supporting family planning. One of the primary goals is to increase contraceptive use to 25% of all couples. PSI works with the Ministry of Health and the Guinean Association for Family Well Being to integrate family planning and sexually transmitted disease prevention activities into 32 primary health care centers in Guinea's Forest Region. To combat the spread of HIV infection, PSI provides technical assistance to the National AIDS Committee to carry out AIDS information activities throughout the country, targeting the military, police, truck drivers, and students.

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