To celebrate International Condom Day — strategically observed the day before Valentine’s — health officials and others handed out around 100,000 condoms on the Mexico City Metro on Thursday.
“Around six million people travel daily on the Mexico City Metro, which makes it an ideal space for the promotion of health within the reach of everyone,” said the Metro in a press release.
The distribution was organized in a joint effort by the city’s Secretariats of Health and Inclusion and Wellbeing, the Institute of Youth (Injuve), the Human Rights Commission and various private initiatives.
The Insurgentes Metro roundabout was host to various sexual health activities, such as workshops on how to use contraceptives, short educational films on HIV and talks about the stigmatization of people with the disease.
The day also marked the launch of an Injuve campaign titled “If you want to have sex, you must have condoms,” which aims to promote safe sex.
Injuve director Beatriz Olivares Pinal said that as part of the campaign the institute will distribute free erotic kits that include both male and female condoms, sex toys, spermicide and lubricants.
Olivares added that the institute’s Sexual Health Clinic offers fast and free screenings for HIV and syphilis. In 2019 Injuve carried out 3,756 screenings, of which 44 resulted positive for HIV and 19 came back positive for syphilis.
Source: El Universal (sp)
