Safe Games Campaign Creating Community Discussion

Media Release Safe Games Campaign September 6, 2007

Safe Games Campaign – Creating Community Discussion

The Safe Games Campaign has been ongoing throughout the South Pacific Games here in Samoa, and has created some interesting discussion from the Pacific Community here for the Games. The Safe Games Kits were distributed to athletes and team officials on their arrival at the athlete’s villages, and it was amazing to see a large number of athletes wearing the bags around the town. Neli Wightman, Safe Games Committee Secretary said ‘It has been so exciting seeing the athletes putting to use the bags and the water bottles which can be seen all over the town, sports complex’s and athletes villages. I was especially excited to see them being worn during the opening ceremony, this has been great exposure for the Campaign.’ Though the use of the backpacks and the water bottles is evident wherever one goes during the Games, whether the athletes have used the other products inside the bag remains to be seen. Evaluation of the Campaign is taking place, where athletes are urged to fill out evaluation forms about the Campaign, answering questions about their knowledge of sexual health issues, and usefulness of the Campaign and its products, i.e. the condoms.

Although the bags were minus the female condoms, this seemed to create more discussion of what these new safe sex items were and how they were meant to be used. Wightman also said ‘It didn’t matter that the female condoms were not included in the bags. People were still able to access them from a variety of access points, and they did so, with almost half of the 5000 female condoms imported for the Games, being handed out on request of some very curious members of the community. It actually seemed to create more interest about them which was great news for the Campaign, and for people being able to have more options when it came to safe sex practices’

There have also been rumours of Team Fiji having to hand back the male condoms to their team officials. This proves that there is a long way to go with creating safe dialogue in the Pacific region surrounding sexual health issues.

Peer Educators Out and About!

Peer educators have been seen out and about at venues and accommodation, and of course at the Safe Games Zone booths in town and at the athlete’s villages. Peer education is about providing people with an access point for information and referral on a certain topic, this being anything related to enjoying a Safe Games. The peer educators have been trained by the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, from the Division of Youth, and the help of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and are armed with knowledge and skills of HIV/AIDS and other STI, and outreach communication skills. They have worked tirelessly to answer many people’s questions about sexual health and safe sex. The peer educators have visited all venues and spoken to a large number of people.

Condom Erection an unfortunate flop for the Safe Games Campaign

While the Campaign itself has been creating some interesting community discussion about access to information and safe sex equipment, differing religious views and sexual health topics, the erection of the giant condom that was speculated to occur last week, did not happen due to technical difficulties. Wightman commented saying ‘It is indeed a shame that we were unable to erect the condom, as we knew there was much anticipation of its erection. Unfortunately there were a few technical issues which made it impossible to put it up, which shows that putting up a condom, no matter how big or small it is takes preparation, and planning. All jokes aside it would have been interesting to see what reactions would have happened when it did go up.’ Wightman also confirms that there was no pressure from any organization not to put it up, and that this was definitely not the reason it did not happen, in spite of some speculation that this was the reason the condom was not erected.

ENDS

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