Condom Nation Slides into Town

Condom Nation, an initiative of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), rolled into Orlando on Tuesday, distributing nearly 60,000 free condoms over a five-hours period.

Stationed outside the Caribbean Supercenter on W. Colonial Drive, Condom Nation’s 18-wheeler, 72-foot custom-wrapped big rig and a smaller HIV/AIDS testing unit, were hard to miss.  Condom Nation aims to make condoms easily and readily available to those who are sexually active.

“We want to make sure people are protected and to lower the rates of HIV and STDs in the community, but most importantly we want people know that condoms are accessible,” said Marco Benjamin, Program Manager, Condom Nation Tour  “We are just bringing back the basic prevention into the hands of the community.”

Benjamin believes that condoms ought to be more readily available and less costly and points to places like Walgreens where they are locked up in cabinets and sell for $1.25 to $1.50 per condom. “I think if we could have condoms in peoples hands, the conversation about using protection, while having intercourse, would be a lot easier and not taboo,” he added.

He thinks there is a connection between the lack of easy access to condoms, their relatively high cost (AHF purchases condoms for less than 3 cents) and the still too high rates of the HIV/AIDs infection.

“We need to eliminate the stigma around having condoms and to make them readily available at no cost to people,” said Benjamin. “We plan to just keep going until this nation is a Condom Nation.”

Monica Rutherford, Regional Manager, AIDS Healthcare Foundation said, there was a steady stream of people stopping by – some to pick up bags of condoms, others to get tested for HIV/AIDs.  She estimates that by the end of the day, at least 25 persons would have been tested for the disease.

“If someone is positive there is care and treatment available to them, whether or not they have insurance,” said Rutherford.  “Locally, AIDS Healthcare Foundation has a mobile unit that serves Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake County and we provide care and treatment to people with HIV whether they have the ability to pay or not.”

About 75 percent of the people who stopped by Condom Nation were minorities, Rutherford estimates, most of whom expressed appreciation for the protection of their communities. Among those dropping by were, mothers who collected bags of condoms for their teenage sons, a pastor for his congregation and a hotel owner who desired to protect sex workers.

The Condom Nation caravan, which kicked off its second U.S. tour in California last week, is visiting five Florida cities, including Orlando.  The team will head to Saint Petersburg and Fort Myers before the big rig and van arrive in Fort Lauderdale for the Florida AIDS Walk and Music Festival on March 24th.  Then, the big rig will head up the East Coast in time to make an appearance at AHF’s Keep The Promise on AIDS March and Rally in New York City on April 6th.

Organizers have a goal of giving away 50 million condoms nationwide.  Last year, some 4.5 million free condoms were distributed.