Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Fit hits the shan where the rubbers meet the road

Take what happened when the idiots who run Washington, D.C., decided to buy defective -- imagine that! -- Chinese condoms for free giveaways, supersize it, and you start to get some idea of what happens when an entire society starts thinking with its little head instead of its big one.

The Washington Post
gets the facts but misses the irony:

Tens of thousands of condoms provided free by the District to curb HIV-AIDS have been returned to the health department because of complaints that their paper packaging is easily torn and could render the condoms ineffective.

Demand at two distribution sites in Southeast set up by groups combating AIDS plummeted more than 80 percent after the condoms, in a mustard-yellow and purple wrapper, were introduced this year. More than 2,000 packets a week were scooped up in mid-March, but by late May, only 400 were being given away each week.

Volunteers concerned about why interest had dropped began asking people who had picked up the condoms. They were told about packets ripping in purses or bursting open in pockets. As a result, many recipients said they had little confidence that the condoms would offer protection.

In addition, expiration dates on some of the Chinese-made condoms were illegible.

"People were saying, 'These packets aren't any good,' " said Franck DeRose, executive director of an educational organization called the Condom Project, one of those involved in the grass-roots distribution system. A coalition that includes the Condom Project sent back 100,000 condoms to the city, about 15 percent of what the city says has been passed out to groups.

The city's effort to dispense up to 1 million condoms this year has drawn praise, but there has been little applause for the packets. The wrapper is emblazoned with the slogan "Coming Together to Stop HIV in D.C."

Concerns arose almost immediately. In interviews yesterday, officials at nearly half a dozen organizations that had been dispensing the condoms said they had received negative feedback from clients. Many said that the packaging seemed shoddy, they said.

"We're using them mostly for demonstration programs," said Cyndee Clay, executive director of HIPS, which helps sex workers in the city.

Some people were suspicious about the way the wrappers look. Even before reports of ripping, youths involved with the group Metro TeenAIDS wondered why the wrappers weren't plastic or foil, like those sold in stores.

"They doubted the authenticity of the condoms" and balked at taking them, executive director Adam Tenner said. "Distribution of those condoms has been really difficult," he said, and the nonprofit diverted funding from other programs to buy its own. "The question becomes, how do we fix this?"

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