National Aids Council and Condom Promotion in Mozambique
Narrator: The road show stops for the night. Condoms on offered to any
passerby. In fact, these are all white condoms but Sheila has
disguised some repackaging them as branded condoms. Will
anybody complain?
Arthur: So we are going to offer you condoms, for free.
Male: For free?
Arthur: No, you pay for them.
Male: You're crazy. Paying for condoms, to whom?
Male: We're joking, choose.
Female: Instead of giving us money, they came to give us condoms with
AIDS.
Female: I'm not afraid.
Male: Hey, look, you fooled me. You used them yourself, and now you
give me this one. Look, this is my favorite brand.
Male: Look, my packaging is different, but the condoms in there are all
also the white ones.
Male: The condoms that were here, where are they?
Arthur: You don't like these?
Male: No! We don't like them.
Arthur: Why?
Male: They smell rubbery. Even a child would not make a football out of
them.
Arthur: What would you like?
Male: I like the scented ones.
Narrator: Sheila reckons linking condoms to HIV is not just useless, but
confusing encouraging rumors that condoms actually contain the
HIV virus.
Arthur: Those who said we are bringing AIDS, you lose out now. Do these
have AIDS?
Male: No. These have no AIDS.
Arthur: So you're going to use all of these?
Male: Thank you very much. God bless you, God bless you.
Narrator: Sheila’s found different reasons for condom use in each of her
interviews, even though no one mentioned AIDS. She takes her
findings back to the National Aids Council. But the scale of the
pandemic, can they risk abandoning the public health message?
Sheila Manjate: Do you admit that before we had the problem of pregnancy and
abortion that has always been there?
Diogo Milagre: Unwanted pregnancy is a localized problem. AIDS is the central
problem.
Sheila Manjate: Of the Government?
Diogo Milagre: The central problem of today is that we have an infection rate of 16
percent. I have got one million and six hundred thousand people
infected, and that could compromise the development prospects of
the country. That is the central problem.
Narrator: For those responsible for mitigating the impact of a pandemic,
Sheila’s message may be far too risky. It is a message on the edge
of the debate but the debate maybe moving her way.
Sheila Manjate: Probably it is necessary for me, one day, to invite Mr. Diogo to
take off his suits, put on shorts, a t-shirt, a pair of flip flops and
enter the communities and take with him the message of
pregnancy, abandoned women, drop-outs, sex after pregnancy and
make those messages the image of the condom. And solve the
problem, based on the problems of the people.