By Richmore Tera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – ALTHOUGH Valentine’s Day came and went, the International Condom Day which is observed on the same day with that belonging to Cupid, literally passed without much observation.
Celebrations for the International Condom Day in Zimbabwe were held in the country’s major cities, towns and other areas in a bid by the Ministry of Health and Child Care to promote the usage of condoms as one of the preventive against the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among partners.
It is ironic that the message of ‘condomising’ received little attention on Valentine’s Day which is supposed to stands for everything associated with the true meaning of the word love, which is a noble and worthy thing among human beings.
Ironic because at closer look, it on days such as these ones that people who are in relationships tend to be experimental, loosened up, outgoing and bold enough to indulge in new things that they would not have done before in their relationships, all in the name of love.
This is when romance is “consummated” through sex, according to the partners, some of whom rush into things without proper planning and bearing in mind the consequences of having unprotected sex.
No one needs to be schooled in new sex lessons in order to learn that unprotected sex leads to pregnancies (unplanned and unwanted ones, for that matter) and sexual infections.
This is the reason why the organisers of such events like the International Condom Day always try to spread awareness as a way of reminding people of condom use, through the engagement of artistes like musicians and drama groups while road shows in the suburbs also help in information dissemination.
However, the news is not that bleak, Statistics available indicate that 100 million condoms were distributed in 2016 up from 80 million in 2014 during the same period.
This was according to the health ministry, who also added that 105 million male and 4, 5 million female condoms were distributed, with the female condom uptake remaining low.
“The use of either male of female condom have added advantage of also being a family planning method which prevents unplanned pregnancies,” explained the health ministry in a statement.
This year, the International Condom Day was held under the theme, “Always in Fashion.”
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