Condom Distribution

The following blog post was written on the evening of the 20^th July.

Throughout Lesotho condom dispensers can be found in public bathrooms (usually the men’s bathroom, but sometimes the women’s) for free. Often these dispensers are empty, indicating that they are being used. The public campaign against HIV/AIDS concentrates heavily on safe sex. Part of the problem, however, is that the emphasis is usually on educating women, while it was made clear to us that the sexual decision making belongs almost exclusively to the men in the community. Also, since the majority of the schools in Lesotho are religiously owned (although publicly funded) the way that HIV/AIDS is discussed in the curriculum also varies. We told that most of the Catholic schools in Lesotho continue to teach an abstinence based curriculum, even with the staggering HIV rates and the low age of average first sexual experience. To me, it borders on being unethical for schools to fail to adequately prepare their students for the reality that exist in the communities they live in and failure to teach them the basics of sexual health could be construed as a failure on their part.