By CHIPEMA SAKAIMBO –
THE Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC) has called on the Government to allocate funding for the provision of female condoms in rural areas.
TALC executive director Felix Mwanza said with the increasing number of cervical cancer and STDS that had drastically affected women, especially in the rural areas, it was vital for the Government to uplift and support this preventive measure.
Mr Mwanza said there was low usage of condoms, especially female condoms, in rural areas due to a lack of accessibility of information nor the availability of the condoms as a result of limited resources.
He said that there were barriers to condom access faced by poor women because most female condoms were basically designed for mostly the elite and literate women in urban areas.
“There is biasness in the geographical distribution of female condoms because mostly women in rural areas are not catered for, even though they are the ones who highly need them,” he said.
Mr Mwanza said to this effect, it was important that the Government through the Ministry of Health and Community Development allocated resources that would help in the sensitisation and distribution of female condoms to rural women if vices such as unplanned pregnancies, STDs and cervical cancer were to be reduced.
He said it was essential to also engage traditional leaders that would in return be able to influence their female subjects on the importance of condom usage.
Mr Mwanza said this in the end would enhance condom usage and help women to be able to discuss freely even other related issues.