Estonian MPs Receive LOVE Condoms, Courtesy of AHF and Partners
On the eve of the International Condom Day, which is typically commemorated around Feb. 14, AIDS Healthcare Foundations (AHF) partner the Estonian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS sent out envelopes with LOVE Condoms to the Estonian parliamentarians and government officials.
This action is a part of the activists’ initiative to bring the discussion about condom access as a HIV prevention tool into the public forum. So far, the high price of condoms in Estonia is seen as one of the main impediments to their wider use by the people, especially those who are at a higher risk of contracting the virus.
According to Igor Sobolev, the Estonian Network’s president of the board, the price point for condoms must be lowered in order to make condoms a more attractive prevention method for the young people, who otherwise cannot afford them in some instances.
AHF’s partners reached out to the youth as part of the International Condom Day commemoration by distributing LOVE Condoms and conducting HIV prevention workshops in schools, night clubs and bars in several large cities across the country. Activists also distributed condoms to difficult-to-reach, high-risk groups such as injecting drug users, commercial sex works and men who have sex with men.
In all the Estonia Network reached about 8,000 people with the prevention messages and distributed close to 12,000 condoms. The initiative has provoked an outpouring of media attention and has helped advance the dialog surrounding the accessibility of condoms and their price.