After launching the “Afcon Without Aids” campaign on January 21, Gabon’s First Lady Sylvia Bongo Ondimba’s NGO, who initiated the crusade, began random distribution of condoms in Libreville and Franceville on Saturday, which organizers say is the second phase of the fight against HIV-Aids during the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
Hundreds of youths dressed in red and white T-shirts were handing packets of condoms to passersby across the streets of the two host cities in Gabon and cartons of the safe-sex plastics were being offloaded to hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and hostels.
The free-of-charge distribution is accompanied with fliers and leaflets bearing messages of life and hope, meant to incite the public against unsafe sex during the three-week competition. Local authorities say they intend to check the spread of the disease from visitors to locals and vice versa, hence the strong mobilization.
Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o and Gabon’s goalkeeper Didier Ovono are also backing the campaign. The duo starred in a TV and radio commercial tagged 3-0, which is broadcast incessantly across the central Africa country. “The free distribution of condom is a very good strategy because Gabon already has a high ratio of HIV contamination, and with the influx of visitors for the 2012 Afcon, things might get worse, because our girls like mixing up,” Cedric Moussavou, a secondary school teacher based in the Owendo district of Libreville told SuperSport.
“It is a good thing to enlighten the public and give condoms free off charge, but you and I don’t get into the hotel rooms where the act happens. We don’t know if they truly use the condoms while in there. So we are afraid how many more girls will be contaminated before the end of the Afcon,” Stephanie Nguema, a state nurse in Franceville said.
Statistics from the health ministry say 63,000 of the nation’s 1.5 million population are HIV-positive, while 40 % of Gabonese are ignorant of their status. More than 2,000 Aids-related deaths were registered recently.
