Kim Whipkey's blog

Women of the world unite for their rights! The past few days have demonstrated the power and visibility of women at the International AIDS Conference, with hundreds of women and girls’ rights activists leading the charge by marching to the Zocalo (the historic city square) to the beat of “all rights for all women.” Women, men, transgender persons, sex workers, lesbians, adolescents, and gender equality advocates are demanding the fundamental human rights of women and young women: the right to live and make decisions without fear of violence, coercion, stigmatization or discrimination; the right to a free, healthy and safe sex life; the right to dignified work; the right to comprehensive information and services regarding prevention and sex education; the right to life-saving treatment… With women comprising 60% of adults living with HIV and AIDS in many regions of the world, women’s lives hang in balance in the absence of these rights.  read more »

Young people want female condoms.  They are seeking information and better access to them.  They are demanding the only effective and currently available method to prevent HIV that young women and women can initiate themselves.

This groundswell of interest in female condoms surfaced at the Mexico YouthForce Pre-Conference, particularly during a workshop I co-facilitated around expanding prevention options for women and girls.  To my elation, virtually all of the 40 workshop participants had heard of female condoms, and more than half had seen or touched one.  For female condom advocates, this is a rare and exciting encounter.

But the sobering refrain throughout the pre-conference was that while many youth are passionate about female-initiated prevention options, including the female condom—they remain largely inaccessible in a wide range of countries, even for young women and men who go out of their way to find them.

One young woman from Mexico visited ten stores in her local community before she was able to find one that sold female condoms.  Yet another Mexican woman passed me a hand-written note during my presentation, stating that her peer education organization is interested in obtaining female condoms but doesn’t know to whom or where to turn, or how to pay for them.  read more »