The National Aids Council (NAC) has warned that Zimbabwean men may soon need to include condoms in their budgets, as donors are starting to scale down support for HIV response measures, reported NewsDay.
Speaking at the recent Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union’s Gwanda regional meeting, NAC representative Abraham Ncube cautioned that free condom distribution may not be sustainable soon.
Ncube explained that 3% is currently being deducted from workers’ salaries as an Aids Levy, with 50% of these funds going towards the procurement of antiretrovirals (ARVs). He added:
This is not enough and it is being supplemented by donors who then come in such as Global Fund and other international donors who come with other funds to procure ARVs as well as some prevention commodities like condoms.
Maybe we need to be aware that donors are now scaling down in general in terms of supporting the HIV response.
Meaning to say where we thought we were entitled to free condoms, maybe it’s about time we should start thinking of having a condom budget as responsible people.
If you are a man and say at my home there are no condoms, well that is food for thought. We need to come out of that dependence syndrome and think in terms of us being independent.
Ncube said part of the Aids Levy was used to acquire ARVs while the remainder was used for other response programmes such as prevention activities.
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