Community involvement

While mass media can be a useful tool to increase awareness of the female condom, a study in Tanzania found that peer educators and service providers have a stronger impact on a particular individual's motivation to use a female condom. Research from Brazil and Zimbabwe showed that those most likely to use and continue to use a female condom had access to community outreach programmes. In a recent acceptability study in India, 75 per cent of participants consulted the outreach worker when they were experiencing initial difficulties with insertion, highlighting the important role of community support in female condom programmes. Growing evidence points to the positive role that health care providers can play in promoting the use of the female condom. However, in some cases, their own biases against barrier methods can marginalise and undermine programmes.