YOUTHS drawn from eight African countries have implored their respective governments to adopt S-T EYE condoms which detect sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and help in the fight against spread of diseases.
By Phyllis Mbanje
An S-T EYE condom changes colour when used by an infected person.
The calls were made during the Southern African Students and Youth Conference on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights held in Harare last week.
The conference was hosted by a local youth organisation, Students and Youth Working on Reproductive Health Action Team (SAYWHAT), and was attended by over 300 delegates, drawn from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The concept of S-T EYE condoms was developed by three British teenage students at the Newton Academy in East London, as a way to make sexual encounters safer.
The condoms have a built-in indicator that can detect STIs like chlamydia or syphilis.
“The condom will change colour to yellow (herpes), or purple (HPV) or green (chlamydia) or blue (syphilis),” said Nqobile Munzara, a lawyer and founder of Culture Shock Trust.
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Young people, who constitute more than a third of sub-Saharan Africa’s total population, face numerous sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) challenges which are yet to be met.
“The young people are fully aware of the risks involved and by suggesting the S-T EYE condoms their concern is to create a much safer generation,” Munzara, who is also a life skills coach, said.
During the conference, it also emerged that the infamous nude parties were being fuelled by moral decadence and many youths were victims of peer pressure.
A local teenager gave testimony that she had been hoodwinked by a friend to attend one of these pool/nude parties.
“I was shocked when everyone started undressing and was embarrassed to say no, or else ndozonzi wakasarira (if I refused they would call me backward),” she explained.
She shocked the delegates when she said “sex marathons” were part of the numerous games played at such parties and children as young as 10 were engaging in sex.
