For some reason, India has the best condom stories.
The best I heard was while I was doing research at a large medical college in India. Med students were required to spend some time in rural areas in healthcare clinics.
So this group decided to hold a family planning camp and hand out free condoms. It was very well attended and they demonstrated how to use condoms using an appropriately shaped twig.
Everyone went home with bunches of condoms and the med students felt they had made some progress in promoting family planning.
Well, a few months later the team went back and were faced with strident complaints that their little handouts had not worked.
On some investigation they found that those who attended their lecture failed to understand that the twig was for demonstration purposes only.
It seemed that they thought it was some kind of talisman, went home, found appropriately shaped twigs and rolled a condom on it before having sex with their wives.
Needless to say the wives got pregnant and the poor doctors got blamed for it.
I remember the doctor who told me this was practically crying in her teacup.
This was on par with the story that I heard from a social worker who was sent to investigate why contraceptive pills being handed out to women in a particular village were not working.
On investigating she found out that while men were anxious to control family size, they felt they were surrendering their masculinity by letting women control reproductive decisions.
At first I thought it was really bizarre, but the longer I watched, the cooler I thought it was. A catchy song about safe, effective condom use! That seems like a pretty good teaching tool.
ever useful
The best I heard was while I was doing research at a large medical college in India. Med students were required to spend some time in rural areas in healthcare clinics.
So this group decided to hold a family planning camp and hand out free condoms. It was very well attended and they demonstrated how to use condoms using an appropriately shaped twig.
Everyone went home with bunches of condoms and the med students felt they had made some progress in promoting family planning.
Well, a few months later the team went back and were faced with strident complaints that their little handouts had not worked.
On some investigation they found that those who attended their lecture failed to understand that the twig was for demonstration purposes only.
It seemed that they thought it was some kind of talisman, went home, found appropriately shaped twigs and rolled a condom on it before having sex with their wives.
Needless to say the wives got pregnant and the poor doctors got blamed for it.
I remember the doctor who told me this was practically crying in her teacup.
This was on par with the story that I heard from a social worker who was sent to investigate why contraceptive pills being handed out to women in a particular village were not working.
On investigating she found out that while men were anxious to control family size, they felt they were surrendering their masculinity by letting women control reproductive decisions.
So the men were taking the pills instead.
(And now I kind of want to learn that dance.)
At first I thought it was really bizarre, but the longer I watched, the cooler I thought it was. A catchy song about safe, effective condom use! That seems like a pretty good teaching tool.