After more than a decade of resistance from the authorities and representatives, Health Minister Louis Deguara has declared his agreement with the university students’ petition to introduce a condom vending machine at the Tal-Qroqq campus.
Speaking at the launch of World AIDS Day awareness campaign last Friday, the minister said that while it was more desirable to have young people abstaining from sex and being loyal to their partners, those who did not subscribe to this message still had to be protected.
“As health ministry we will keep putting forward the message that abstinence is the best AIDS prevention, but I know not everyone follows this message, and even those students have to be protected. So yes, I’m in favour of having a condom machine at university as these students should be protected too.”
His declaration comes at a time when university students are attempting to get a condom machine installed on campus – a historic battle that has been met with the resistance of the conservative university senate and the Catholic students’ movement despite the apparent triviality of it all.
Even David Herrera, the reactionary right-wing KSU president from the PN’s student greenhouse, SDM, has already declared his indifference in stating this is not a priority. And on the other alleged side of the ideological spectrum, Pulse concurs with the neo-conservatives, surpassed in enthusiasm only by the satirical ‘Malta University Virgins Club’, created recently in the aftermath of the condoms petition, whose professed aim is “to defend the rights of virgin students on campus”.
Yet the students behind the campaign claim the petition is “necessary” given the resistance to past attempts to introduce a condom machine over more than a decade, coupled with the fact that Maltese youths have among the highest rates of unsafe sex in Europe.
Deguara clearly agrees: in fact on Friday he launched the AIDS awareness campaign at the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary, urging students to become leaders in the prevention movement and distributing for the first time ever some of the most clear, honest and direct instructions on all forms of AIDS prevention in the Maltese language and with impeccable imagery portraying heterosexual, gay and lesbian sexual situations.
There’s no beating around the bush in the brand new material prepared for the occasion by the Health Promotion Department, which are met with the customary resistance in church schools and most of the private schools. One of the booklets distributed lists all the methods – from pills to coitus interruptus, together with the costs of each method (the latter obviously free, but also largely ineffective – 25 per cent of women get impregnated anyway through this method), what it involves, how effective it is, its advantages and disadvantages.
Another little leaflet in Maltese lists all the sexually transmitted diseases, together with a “how-to” list to prevent infections in all situations including sex between women, women and men, and between men engaging in oral, anal, and vaginal sex, besides masturbation which can be risky only “if a partner is involved and whose sperm or vaginal fluid is used by you as a lubricant”. Last but not least, the leaflet reminds its readers to “avoid the sharing of sex toys”, which should “always be washed well after use and kept as much as possible for your personal use”.
Deguara said: “I came here to call on students to spread the message themselves,” Deguara said. “Our message is abstain, be faithful, use condoms and don’t do drugs. Coming from a person in authority, it is not the best way to convince young people, but if they take up this message they can be much more effective. It’s important they take responsibility for their health, especially on something with such harmful consequences as AIDS.”
AIDS and HIV figures soared alarmingly in Malta over the last two years, marking the highest rates of increase among EU countries with 29 new cases registered last year and another 16 cases registered so far this year, although the majority of new cases belong to non-residents.
The Malta Medical Students Association regularly pass out condoms as part of their awareness campaign on World AIDS Day and actively promotes sexual health awareness through a dedicated sub-committee, although even they are banned from schools and post-secondary colleges in the Curia’s realm.