I was privileged enough this week to train with PSI in Diego. I observed commercial sex worker peer education and family planning outreach programs. I may have mentioned previously that the people in this country are relatively unmotivated, but these people are no such thing. I was thoroughly impressed. They take a grassroots approach and get results. Every session, every employee is a peer to their audience. Women teach women about family planning options. Young men walk around and teach young men about condom usage. Commercial sex workers gather commercial sex workers and teach about sexually transmitted diseases. And you know what? People listen.
Below are pictures from a family planning reception with PSI. The employee, Natalie, asked the people who own a house in the neighborhood if she could use their electricity and their yard and then gathered a bunch of women off the street just to talk to them about family planning. The women came out of interest, to look at a white person, snacks, and the desire to watch a DVD (in no particular order, but I'd guess snacks were the top reason).
I am little pessimistic about encouraging people and sex workers to use condoms. The root of the problem is not them, it's their customers (especially foreigners whose primary goal to visit Madagascar is sexual tourism). The truth is that there is a huge difference of level satisfaction of a man during sexual intercourse between using a condom or not. Even though no one points a gun over the head of those sex workwers to have an unprotected sexual intercourse, it's hard for them to resist the Euro and accept what their customer want and risk their lives (getting HIV/AIDS and STDs) because of the living condition in Madagascar.
ReplyDelete