Shadishadi residents shun condoms

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Thursday November 24, 2011 00:00

According to the health education officer at Shadishadi, Oshale Sesupo, there are widespread misconceptions in the area that condoms cause kidney diseases and people in the area would never use them.  They believe that the 'oil' in the condoms is the root cause of their problems.

'They say their kidneys get painful after using condoms and they strongly believe it is the lubricating oil in the condoms,' she said.

Sesupo said that this is despite efforts to educate them on the use of condoms that are distributed in the area.

'We talk to them every day and they just do not listen,' she said. She added that when they provide mobile services to neighbouring villages and cattle posts they take condoms with them, which they bring back because people show no interest in them and even make it clear that they will not use them. 'Only a few people take them. But we keep talking to them about these issues,' she said. She also expressed concern that the Tebelopele Voluntary Testing and Counselloing Centre in Molepolole has stopped referring clients to her office for further intervention where people had tested HIV positive and need to be put on treatment. 

'People would stay away and because we knew them we were able to visit them and encourage them to start treatment. Now a lot of people go back home and stay away from treatment. We are unable to follow them because we do not know them,' she said. Surprisingly people do come to test in large numbers she said.

'They do come for tests. The problem is that they run away after testing positive,' she said. 'We will only see them again when they are very ill and that is when they would tell us their positive status,' she said.  Shadishadi, which is about 100 kilometres north of Molepolole, has less than 800 residents.