by Beh Lih Yi, Feb 2, 2018
KUALA LUMPUR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Inspired by the mobile game Pokemon Go, campaigners in the Philippines are using a smartphone app to send users to locations with condom dispensers in a bid to promote safe sex and break stigma to fight a worsening HIV epidemic.
The Philippines has registered the fastest-growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia-Pacific, according to the United Nations, with a 140-percent jump in new infections over six years from 2010 and young gay men and transgender women most at-risk.
To tackle low condom use, activists have teamed up with restaurants and shops to set up dispensers with free condoms in the capital Manila which users can locate through an app.
Led by Save the Children and campaign group LoveYourself, which promotes HIV awareness, the Safe Spaces project has set up 30 dispensers in Manila so far and aims to expand to 150 locations across the country this year.
“It’s like Pokemon Go when you run out of Poke Balls, you need to refill at a nearby station. At Safe Spaces, you can see the nearest stations where you can access free condoms,” LoveYourself founder Ronivin Pagtakhan said.
“This is an innovation, it has never been done before. Now people can access condoms safely and without stigma,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Manila.
The Philippines in recent years has seen rising incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can leads to AIDS, although the rate has fallen in other parts of the world.
Most cases were transmitted through sexual contact and two out of three new HIV infections were among 15 to 24-year-old men, according to Philippine officials.
Philippines researcher Carlos Conde from Human Rights Watch – which is not involved in the project – said advocating condom use and sex education are keys to fight HIV but the Philippine government has “failed miserably” to do so in the mainly Catholic nation.
“The main hurdle has been the lack of political will to resist the deeply rooted opposition to these measures,” he said in a statement on Friday.
In another attempt to fight the epidemic, a group of HIV-negative gay men and transgender women started to take anti-HIV drugs last year under a two-year pilot project.
The daily pill, known as PrEP, is designed to protect the body pre-exposure, rather than after HIV spreads.
September 18 –
International Equal Pay Day
“Increase wages now,
more than other cost items.
For widespread, practical equality!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
#Report Corruption #SearchPosts #TakePicturesVideos
October –
Monthly Observances:
Industry and Commerce Safety Month
National Statistics Month
Local Government Month
Consumer Welfare Month
Cooperative Month
National Quality and Productivity Improvement Month
National Health and Wellness Tourism Month
National Indigenous Peoples Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Elderly Filipino Week
Week 2: National Health Education Week
Local Government Week
National Mental Health Week
October 17-23:
National Week for Overcoming Extreme Poverty
October 18 – 24:
United Nations Week
Last Week:
Nurses’ Week
Consumers’ Protection Week
Week of the 4th Sunday:
Barrio Farmers’ Week
Daily Observances:
First Monday (Oct 4): Universal Children’s Day i
n the Philippines
Oct 5: National Teachers’ Day
Oct 10: Local Government Day
Third Thursday (Oct 14): Conflict Resolution Day
Oct 21: Tenants’ Emancipation day
Oct 24: United Nations Day
Oct 29: National Indigenous People’s Thanksgiving Day
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