UGANDA: Public Expresses Frustration Over Condom Shortage
IRIN reported on 29 June that several districts have run out of condoms after the National Medical Stores’ (NMS) stocks were revised downwards. In the past, the NMS had a minimum stock level of six months and a maximum of 12 months, but this has since been changed to a maximum stock level of six months' worth of condoms due to the large amount of storage space required. At the Kampala headquarters of an NGO that looks after sex workers, staff members make calls to the government, UNFPA and various NGOs in search of much-needed free condoms. "The clinic where we normally get them has none and UNFPA says they can only give them to the government, so we are stuck," said Macklean Kyomya, founder of the Women's Organization Networking for Human Rights Advocacy. "Our members [sex workers] up-country need condoms or they are at risk of sexually transmitted infections and HIV." Read: IRIN