Times Of Swaziland: Gone Rural benefits from creative condom campaign

Gone Rural benefits from creative condom campaign
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Entertainment on 14/07/2012 00:00:00


A unique collaboration between Gone Rural and Population Services International
(PSI) at this year’s MTN Bushfire Festival has led to great rewards for rural
women in Swaziland.
For the first time, designers from Gone Rural joined with PSI to run an HIV
prevention campaign focusing on promoting condom use.
The campaign included the sale of limited edition men’s and women’s T-shirts
with novel textured designs that promote the Lovers Plus range of smooth, ribbed
studded, coloured and flavoured condoms.
Campaign
Phillippa Thorne, Managing Director of Gone Rural, was the designer during the
campaign.
"We wanted to design something that was different and fun, to get people talking
and to remove some of the stigma attached to condoms."
The campaign raised E13 000 to support Gone Rural ’s HIV Peer Educator
programme, which reaches 52 rural communities across Swazi-land.
A contemporary dance was also performed as part of the Festival, with dancers
wearing designer costumes made from 5 000 condoms.
Luis Martinez, from PSI said the campaign had great potential and would like to
see the campaign expanded to include a wider range of merchandise at next
year’s Bushfire Festival sponsored by more partners.
"This was a great example of thinking outside the box to raise awareness of HIV
and condom use. I encourage more organisations to get involved, so that it’s
even bigger and better next year."
If you missed out on the limited edition T-shirts, some are still available for
purchase at the Gone Rural shop in Malkerns.
Upliftment
Gone Rural boMake is a non-profit organisation in the Kingdom of Swaziland,
founded by Gone Rural (Pty) to assist 780 rural women and their 52 communities
with education, health and social needs.
While Gone Rural provides a regular source of income generation to the women,
Gone Rural boMake complements this work by implementing social upliftment
programmes.
PSI is a global health organisation dedicated to improving the health of people
in the developing world by focusing on serious challenges like lack of family
planning, HIV/AIDS, barriers to maternal health, and the greatest threats to
children under five years old, including malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and
malnutrition.