80-year-old woman sees condom for the first time

A woman believed to be in her eighties stunned counselors of a voluntary counseling and testing organized by WillWay Africa, an anti HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization at Ayetepa in the Dangme West district of the Greater Accra region, when she bluntly told a health officials she preferred drugs to a condom she was being offered.

Her reason simply was that, since her time of womanhood to marriage and old age, she had never seen a condom before or witnessed what a condom is used for.

In fact, the demonstration of what it is used for by the counselor was totally new to her. “This is the first time I have seen this thing and what it is used for,” the nurse who counseled her related this to The Heritage newspaper.

She insisted that she should be given such drugs as paracetamol, vitamin C than a condom after she was counseled and screened and schooled on sexually transmitted diseases and how they can be prevented.

At the end of the exercise, 270 residents of Ayetepa participated in the voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) exercise out of who four tested positive. 1,296 condoms were also distributed to the most at risk groups.

Some residents who participated in the VCT conceded that it had been a revealing experience that enabled them to know their status. They stated that it has given them the confidence to live healthy sexual life styles.

The District AIDS committee member at the Dangme West Assembly, Micheal Brown, was impressed about the level of patronage of the VCT despite the downpour that preceded it.

He was elated with the publicity and awareness tactics used by WillWay Africa.

The Assembly member of the area, Alex Teye Djimeh, observed that the VCT has been beneficial to the people and appealed that it should be extended to neighbouring communities.