Rubber tree helps fight HIV

Need a condom but can't get to a clinic for one before a sexual encounter? Why not pluck one from a tree?

Because men in rural areas can seldom afford to travel to clinics regularly enough to get a steady supply of condoms, an NGO has started distributing them from cans hung on trees.

The NGO S'khokho Community Health is based in rural KwaZulu-Natal, an area with an extremely high prevalence of HIV infection.

S'khokho piloted a project in which "bush cans" or "steel condo cans" are used to dispense condoms near well-worn footpaths at informal settlements near Howick and Hilton West.

The condoms have to be in the shade all day because UV rays and high temperatures can damage them.

Shops and garages would not allow the NGO to distribute free condoms because they sell condoms.

The success of the project was discussed at last week's SA Aids Conference, in Durban.

Public health specialist Jacqueline Pienaar said people in rural areas were "very appreciative of being able to access condoms regularly".

She said a woman told her that the visibility of the "condom trees" made it easier for women to raise the topic of safe sex with their partner.

Pienaar said that at first many people "expressed concerns that [the] cans would be damaged or stolen to be used as spice racks".

But, eight months on, not one of the cans has been vandalised or removed, said Pienaar.

In the first nine months of last year, S'khokho distributed 32500 condoms from clinics.

In the last three months it distributed another 31000 as the fruit of condom trees.

Pienaar urged NGOs to supply condoms consistently because men came to rely on them.

The NGO also uses the cans to advertise services such as medical circumcision, which can reduce a man's chance of contracting HIV by up to 40%.

A Human Science Research Council national HIV household survey released last week showed that nearly half of South African men reported having to pay for condoms.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates last year started a challenge for the design of a condom that would be easier to put on and allow greater sexual pleasure.