New Female Condom Initiatives Launched in Washington, D.C. and Chicago

Learn More! Listen to this NPR interview with Dr. Shannon Hader (Washington, D.C., HIV/AIDS Administration), Nancy Mahon (M.A.C AIDS Fund) and Cecilia Boyd (Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative).

 From PreventionNow.net / Center for Health & Gender Equity (CHANGE)

In a major win for women, the residents of Washington, D.C. and Chicago will now have greater access to female condoms, an important HIV/STI and pregnancy prevention tool that gives women more control over their health and protection. Global support for increased access to female condoms is growing, as demonstrated with the U.S. launches and recent advocacy efforts at the United Nations.

Washington, D.C.
The M*A*C AIDS Fund, Washington AIDS Partnership, CVS, Female Health Company and the D.C. HIV and AIDS Administration have formed a public-private partnership to expand access to female condoms to women, men and youth in D.C. The FC2 will be distributed free of charge in D.C., the second city program to do so. It will be programmed and distributed by local NGOs such as Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan D.C., the Women's Collective, and the Community Education Group. CVS will also stock the FC2 in the Washington, D.C. area.

Read more about the D.C. program in articles from  Newsweek (3/10) and the Washington Post (3/6). Or watch this great CNN.com video.

Chicago
In Chicago, a coalition of HIV/AIDS, reproductive justice, women's health, and gay men's health organizations (including the AIDS Foundation of Chicago) yesterday launched the Chicago Female Condom Campaign ("put a ring on it!"). The campaign has partnered with agencies across the city to also distribute female condoms for free, and is currently reaching out to public health clinics, health care providers, family planning centers, and other community-based organizations to encourage bulk purchasing.

Learn more in this Chicago Tribune article (3/15).

Global Support
The U.S. launches come during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), where just yesterday CHANGE, on behalf of a group of organizations accredited to the UN, delivered an oral statement to government delegates and UN officials that called for dramatically increased access to female condoms globally. Highlights from the statement were captured in a UN press release. Read the full oral statement (PDF).

Also at the CSW, CHANGE and its Prevention Now! Campaign partners circulated a civil society statement (PDF) signed by more than 200 U.S. and international organizations demanding governments and donors increase support for female condoms distribution and programming in developing countries.

From Chicago to Cameroon, women worldwide are mobilizing for prevention options that they can take into their own hands. See CHANGE President Serra Sippel's blog on the matter in the Huffington Post.