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AIDS group’s 70-foot, 18-wheel ‘Condom Nation’ big rig and companion Sprinter van continue national condom giveaway tour with stops in North Carolina to participate a free condom giveaway and free HIV testing event. Goal: 25-states, 10 million free condoms. Over the next two weeks, ‘Condom Nation’ will partner in events in Fayetteville, Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Durham.
What: MEDIA AVAILABILITY—Free condom giveaway. AHF’s ‘Condom Nation’ 18-wheel semi truck continues 40-city, 25-state free condom tour; advocates to hand out free condoms and offer free HIV testing
B-ROLL: 70-foot, 18-wheel ‘Condom Nation’ big-rig with condoms & safer sex education materials
When: Wednesday, September 12th 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm
Where: Cumberland County Health Department
1235 Ramsey Street, Fayetteville NC 28301
NOTE: The condom giveaway and HIV testing will be conducted on-site
at the DOH/Social Services offices
Partner agency offering HIV testing: Cumberland County Health Dept.
Contacts:
James Vellequette, Director, AHF’s Condom Nation Tour, (323) 573-3005 cell
Pat E. White, Disease Intervention Specialist II, Lead, Cumberland County Health Dept.
(910) 433-3641 work (910) 818-7173 cell
When: Friday, September 14th 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm
Where: 10 Sunnybrook Rd. / Raleigh, NC 27610
Partner Agency offering HIV testing: Wake County Human Services
Contacts:
James Vellequette, Director, AHF’s Condom Nation Tour, (323) 573-3005 cell
Luke Keeler, Public Health Educator, HIV/STD Community Program, Wake County Human Services, (919) 758-9770 work (919) 250-1141 cell
FAYETTEVILLE, NC (September 10, 2012) – AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s (AHF) ‘Condom-Nation’ tour—consisting of AHF’s specially-designed 70-foot long, 18 wheel ‘Condom Nation’ big rig truck and a companion ‘Condom Nation’ Sprinter van—arrives this week in North Carolina for free condom giveaways and HIV testing events taking place over the next two weeks throughout the Tar Heel State. The ‘Condom Nation Tour’—a groundbreaking 25-state, 40-city, nationwide tour to select cities, towns and states to hand out ten million free condoms, provide safer sex information and free HIV testing in conjunction with local partners, pulls in to FAYETTEVILLE on Wednesday, September 12th from 12 noon until 6:00pm to partner with the Cumberland County Health Department to give away free condoms and offer free HIV testing.
‘Condom Nation’ was launched earlier this year from the famed Boardwalk in Venice Beach, California as part of AHF’s worldwide observation of International Condom Day—an informal holiday observed annually on February 13th in conjunction with Valentine’s Day.
“Condom Nation is a serious, yet somewhat whimsical and creative effort by AIDS Healthcare Foundation to help promote increased condom use and to help make condoms more accessible and affordable,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Condoms are an essential part of preventing HIV and STDs. Not only are they extremely effective at preventing transmission, they are cheaper and easier to use than many other prevention tools. Our hope is that Condom Nation raises awareness and sparks conversations along the way—both on the coasts and in the heartland—about the importance of condoms and the crucial role they play in disease prevention and safer sex.”
Currently, there are approximately 48,000 new HIV infections and 19 million new STD infections every year in the United States.
Unfortunately, few people have reliable and affordable access to condoms. Recent studies show that when condoms are available and reasonably priced or at no cost, more people use them as a protective measure against STDs, HIV and unwanted pregnancies. In addition, the average $1 retail price per condom is offset by a production cost of only $.04, leaving $.96 for profit. Retail priced condoms are simply too expensive for many people to afford and locations providing free condoms are often geographically distant from those who need them.
“In order to better protect the public health, we need universal access to condoms and they need to be available at an extremely low cost,” said James Vellequette, Director for AHF’s ‘Condom Nation.’ “This tour is a national call to action and we are excited to be working with the Cumberland County Health Department in Fayetteville and Wake County Human Services in Raleigh to help achieve these goals.”
‘Condom Nation’ will:
• Partner with 40+ local advocates in 25 states to distribute ten million free condoms
• Educate and raise awareness about safe sex practices
• Promote the use of condoms through education and advertising
• Spearhead a national advocacy campaign to lower the price of condoms
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At HIV Haven we wish to provide our readers with vital cutting edge information to help expand HIV knowledge and promote activism, particularly that which works towards an end to the HIV pandemic. It is our desire to bring to you the scientific, medical and social advances that given the appropriate attention and support, could change the course of the HIV pandemic, lessen the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, better the quality and quantity of life for people living with HIV and even yield an eventual end to the HIV pandemic. We also provide the basics of HIV transmission and treatment.
We will focus on issues such as innovative drug development, strategic activist campaigns, HIV relationships and novel HIV and HIV cure research. We also will bring you advances in Hepatitis C (HCV), a common HIV co-infection. Whether you are living with HIV/AIDS, HIV and HCV, love someone who is, are an activist, advocate, researcher, physician or just an interested party, we hope here at HIV Haven we can help you find what you are looking for.