The OneLove web site recently published a short article encouraging peer educators to use every opportunity they can to give out condoms to young people, including giving them away at parties and car washes etc.
Our reasoning was that alcohol lowers people’s inhibitions, making them more likely to seek out sexual partners.
Giving them condoms gives them a chance to protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, should they choose to find sexual partners at a party.
However, one of our readers challenged this idea, saying that giving young people condoms at parties is like giving them permission to be promiscuous. Young people need to learn self-control, he said.
“I wonder if people need permission to be promiscuous? Our position is that we are trying to prevent the spread of HIV and not decide on codes of conduct for people,” says Sue Goldstein, senior executive of Soul City’s South Africa programmes.
Sue says people must make their own choices (and indeed they do choose, drunk or not) with regard to the risks that they take.
“We strongly believe that the means to protect oneself must be easily available – so people have full knowledge about how to protect themselves and have access to easily available condoms,” she says.
Talk about it
What do you think about it? Is our reader correct in cautioning us?
Does giving young people condoms encourage them to be promiscious? Share your views by taking the poll below and leaving comments at the end of this post.
One Comment
Condoms should be made available for everybody regardless of their age what so ever. Young people should also be given all the options of prevention and it should be up to them to make correct choices in their day to day challenges.
Those who choose to be sexualy active would be the ones opting for condom use and those who doesnt would opt to wait until their time come.