Since the launch of the Pronto Condom applicator it’s not a question anymore. It’s mission impossible accomplished so to speak. It also remains true though, that you can only get the super fast condom applicator in South Africa only.

But fortunately we have good news to announce here. The South African inventors are currently checking investment opportunities to take the product global and available to a wider public. Until then let’s have a closer look at this product and what it does.

Pronto Condom

The pronto condom applicator decreases the time to put on a condom in less than 4 seconds and ensures that the condom is put on correctly, even in the dark. The condom remains in a relaxed state whilst secured in two separate half moon parts of the applicator that is smooth and will not scratch the user or damage the condom. The condom fitted to the applicator is pre-packaged in a sealed foil wrapper and sold in fours in fun designed packs.

The remarkable design was awarded the “Most Beautiful Object in South Africa” Award at last year’s Design Indaba.

Pronto Condoms Are 4:Secs

I always thought Pronto was fine, but did it really capture the imagination of the people they were targeting? I’m not so sure, but for this year’s Design Indaba South African industrial design firm …XYZ has done a remarkable job rebranding their new Pronto. From now on it is 4:secs Condoms.

The product was designed and is being manufactured in South Africa. The inventors hope that with their invention they will increase condom usage and add a novelty factor to a condom purchase.

4:secs is definitely an interesting approach. I hope to see the 4:secs in other countries soon and you’ll definitely read about it here first.

How 4:Secs Works

How does this condom applicator work? It’s an easy 5 step procedure:

• Hold the pack with the illustrated side facing upwards. Position the thumbs behind the dotted lines, grip firmly. Bend the pack downwards, to crack the top foil layer open
• Bend the pack upwards, to crack the bottom foil layer open
• Pull the 2 halves of the pack apart gently. The condom is suspended between these 2 halves
• Rest the condom on top of the penis. Then gently push downward. This will cause the condom to unroll directly onto the penis. Hold the 2 pack halves in a straight line and keep them close to the sides of the penis, but avoid direct contact. This will ensure a comfortable fit.
• Unroll the condom onto the entire length of the penis. Then keep the pack halves close to the penis and twist them 90 degrees – this will automatically release them from the condom.

Only thing that could happen is that the applicator slips and the condom falls out. In that case take it out and use it like any other condom. That will be 4:secs to 10:secs.

Partly via dezeen.

The awkward but innovative situation is caused by the ongoing high prices for real shoe polish and of course the low prices (or free distribution) of condoms. This new code of practice is apparently around since 2007 when young soldiers and policemen started to experiment with the condom lubricants. From there it was only a matter of time before more and more people started to use it among the city population.

Not everyone is satisfied with the situation such as health and United Nations Population Fund officials who are trying to stop the new shoe polishing method.

A pack of condoms including 3 pieces are sold for 50 FC or 0,09 Dollars on the local markets, whereas a can of shoe polish costs 350 FC or 0,6 Dollars. The prevalence rate of HIV in the urban area of Bandundu is about 3,1 percent.

Via Afrik

Picture credits ajbeanster

Because every member matters, because every voice helps, because every click spreads awareness and helps to help Africa a bit. Condomunity.com and Troy Kennedy, a social enterpreneur and co-founder of thedebateclub, want to make helping as easy as joining this facebook group. And this is what your support will trigger:

44 million servings of Coca-Cola products are sold across Africa – a day. This equates to 16 billion bottles a year. SO how about distributing condoms on a massive scale in Africa by asking Coca-Cola to team up with the United Nations Population Fund and a condom company and ask them to supply a condom with each bottle?Pretty impressive hm? You’ve got to know that donor support for condoms in developing countries remain stagnant at this time and far below projected need. So every donor, every help, every awareness this problem gets is needed. Don’t think your vote doesn’t count, no the support of people like you made Troy’s campaign extremely popular on UK’s Channel 4 Battlefront website.

Africa’s HIV Situation

Due to the difficulty in treating HIV/AIDS, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the epidemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex in attempts to slow the spread of the virus.

At the recent International AIDS Conference in Mexico City one thing was made clear: measures need to be taken with condoms playing a key role in comprehensive HIV prevention, but donor support for condoms in developing countries remain stagnant and far below projected need. In 2007 33.2 million people lived with the disease, it claimed 2.1 million lives in the same year. Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The poorest African countries rely almost entirely on donations of condoms from outside agencies such as the United Nations Population Fund. The UNFPA estimates that in 2005 at least 13.1 billion condoms were needed to significantly reduce the spread of HIV and another 4.4 billion were required for family planning. The number of condoms donated in 2005 was 1.8 billion – representing just 10% of the need.

Coke Campaign Goals

We primarily aim to persuade the Coca-Cola Company to take a good look at the unique position they have and utilising their unique distribution network to deliver important medicines and protective equipment like condoms to the millions of people that desperately need them. But actually we would like to encourage everyone to help too. Do you know a company that would like to sponsor condoms or has got similar means to help out? Would you like to write a blog post about this? Have you got any other suggestions to take action? Be our guests, comment after the article, get in touch with us or do something yourself.

New Series on Condomunity

This is also the start of a new series on condomunity. Troy Kennedy will regularly post updates on how things evolve, how successful his campaigning is and what this means to him. All updates can be read on here or in a more convenient way in your feed reader of course.

Further Reading

If you want to inform yourself on the topic outside of our campaign we suggest give these organisations a visit: UNFPA, UNAIDS, Population Action International, BBC World Service Trust and PSI. You might also want to have a look at the press release concerning this article and an older post regarding the topic:

• Date: 9.9.2008 Two University Students to Take on HIV in Africa
• Date: 14.7.2008 Could Coke Fight HIV in Africa?

So, join the Coke and Condoms facebook group, vote for Troy’s Battlefront campaign if you want to see him on tv and do some good. Please feel free to contribute and comment below!

The study, “The Cost to Circumcise Africa, compared the cost of male circumcision to the cost of lifetime distribution of free condoms in sub-Saharan Africa. Not surprisingly if you ask me they found that,

“Male circumcision is too costly to justify in the HIV battle. Even if circumcision does offer some protection against heterosexually transmitted HIV, condoms clearly provide more protection, at a much lower cost.[...] We found that it just doesn’t make sense to perform mass surgeries in a region of the world struggling to meet the most basic healthcare needs, especially when there are more cost-effective plans for achieving the same results.”

The entire results will be published in fall 2008. This is just another reminder that we could be doing some good with our “Condomunity Coke Action”. We’ll keep you posted.

Via [PRWeb]

I’m just picking up a discussion from “thedebateclub” because I think it is an interesting approach. The basic idea goes like this:

Who doesn’t enjoy an ice cold bottle of Coca-Cola? Not many. Especially, the people of Africa, where 44 million bottles are sold, every single day. 44m x 365 days a year = roughly 16 billion bottles of the brown, fizzy stuff.

So how about attaching a condom to Coke cans? It’s not unlike the recent Finnish Longdrink with a condom. I’d just like to add some thoughts to the conversation here, please feel free to join in.

• This should be integrated into a campaign to actually teach people the use of condoms
• Governments and other organisations should join in to make this successful
• Heat and cold can damage condoms which makes this a difficult task in Africa with drinks
• The trust in Coke is where I see the main chances of this project

Picture credits Meanest Indian

Well why not I think it’s worth a try!