Women demand more female condoms

When the female condom was introduced years ago, its use was timid and many complained it made noise but, today, the demand for it is on the high side as women have taken control of its use.

According to figures advanced by the Cameroon Association for Social Marketing, ACMS, the structure that commercialises the female condom, more than 1.5 million condoms were sold in 2013, indicating that the demand is enormous.

Amougou nee Augustine Bernadette Mofoue has been using the female condom for the past three years and knows why the demand is on the increase.

“Initially the female condom made so much noise and women did not know how to properly insert it, but now, they know. I move with it the whole day when I intend to meet my partner. I don’t want him to complain that it takes long to insert.”

With the female condom becoming more comfortable, Amougou, on the September 16 Global Female Condom Day, negotiated for the NGO “Women, Health and Development, FESADE,” to sensitise women of the Nkoa-Mbang Market in the Mefou-Afamba Division on the use of the female condom.

In that neighbourhood, women joined the ‘Dance4Demand’ initiated by the Rutgers WPF-Netherlands Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health, on the premise that “Young girls who are ignorant of the use of the female condom to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies bring to the world children without fathers,” Amougou observed.

These girls deliver between 13 and 14 years and the problem is linked to their lack of education, she lamented.

Clementine Menguele of the Apostolic Women Group underscored the importance of the female condom. “I tell women to use the female condom which is advantageous for us, economical, has a normal sensation and limits sexually transmittable diseases”.

As a mother of seven, Menguele knows the benefits of the female condom to limit the number of children and she advises other women in her Church group to use and impose the female condom to their partners.

“I took time to convince my partner, I refuse sexual intercourse if we do not use the female condom,” Menguele says. Though, initially, the Church refused contraceptives, times have changed; the Church and Christians are changing.

“The condom is a way of ensuring health and through informal women’s meetings in the Church, we share information on the family and health, profitable to the society,” she added.

Not only women are adhering to the female condom, men like Landry Akene advises that men should not be afraid of the female condom, but try it, saying it is practical for women, acting like a bucket to contain liquid.

He underscored the need for more campaigns, given that in markets, women get exposed to many illnesses through negligence.

Jean Pierre Makang, Inspector of Social Affairs, Sub-Director for the Promotion of Women’s’ Rights at the Ministry of Women Empowerment, urged women to take their sexuality into their her hands and assume their choices in liberty, while remarking that gone are the days when men imposed the male condom them.

He said women should focus on the use of the female condom for personal satisfaction, the family and the couple.

The Global Female Condom Day was celebrated worldwide on September 16 and Cameroon was part of the celebrations. The female condom, known to some and not to others, was presented at the Nkoa Mbang neighbourhood to show that the product is demanded as first choice protection against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“Men and women already know the female condom and are trying and adopting it as their choice.” Urbain Abega, Programme coordinator at FESADE, reiterated.