Bypassing restrictive new regulations, condom supplies will be distributed via Marie Stopes International’s centre network in NSW to all registered youth on request.
“World Youth Day is expected to attract up to 225,000 international and local youth – all of which have been invited to sleep out under the stars next Saturday night at Randwick,” said Jill Michelson, Operations Manager of Marie Stopes International.
“The simple fact is that many young people – including Catholics - have sex.
“When young people get together to celebrate and the euphoria is high, sexual activity can occur.
“To not provide access to condoms to those that choose to engage in sexual activity is simply encouraging unprotected sex, sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy.”
Marie Stopes International contacted World Youth Day organisers in May and offered to provide condoms for all attendees, but the proposal was not responded to.
“Condoms are now a standard issue to athletes in every Olympic village with 70,000 condoms distributed to athletes at the Sydney games and 130,000 distributed at the Athens games,” said Ms Michelson.
“Clearly Olympic organizers have faced up to the reality of what can occur when young people get together – it’s a shame that World Youth Day organisers aren’t following suit.”
Marie Stopes International will also be operating its 24-hour free call sexual health telephone hotline and text messaging service, sextxt™. The 24-hour hotline will provide World Youth Day pilgrims with around the clock access to sexual health help and advice. Pilgrims also have the option of texting ‘sexinfo’ to 19SEXTXT (19 739 898), receiving a reply within seconds with 10 options for automated assistance on sexual health issues.
“If someone has had unprotected sex and they think their sexual health is at risk, the sooner they can seek help and advice, the better,” Ms Michelson said.
“And given Australia’s current high rates of STIs and unplanned pregnancy, we believe that providing access to such services is vital.”
In 2007 there were over 52,000 notifications of chlamydia nationwide. In comparison, there were just under 17,000 notifications of chlamydia in 2000 – indicating that the rate of diagnosis has nearly tripled over the past seven years.
“Often STIs such as chlamydia don’t have any symptoms, so they can be contracted and passed on unknowingly,” Ms Michelson said.
“The only way to make sure you don’t have chlamydia is to have an STI checkup, and the only way to avoid it is to wear a condom at all times.
“And we’ll be making sure that World Youth Day participants have that choice available to them.”
Condom supplies will be distributed to all registered WYD participants on request at NSW centres. Details of Marie Stopes International centre locations can be found here. The 24-hour sexual health hotline can be accessed by calling 1800 003 707. Calls to the service are free of charge from fixed line phones. The sextxt™ service costs 55 cents per SMS message and the initiative is a not-for-profit service. The sextxt™ website – www.sextxt.org.au - complements the service with additional info on sexual health topics to ensure young people are fully equipped with the facts they need.
About Marie Stopes International: Marie Stopes International is a not-for-profit sexual and reproductive healthcare provider, with centres in the ACT, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. The organisation offers a range of services, including abortion, vasectomy, sexually transmitted infection check-ups and contraception. Surplus proceeds from Australian activities support the work of Marie Stopes International Partnerships, which delivers sexual and reproductive health services to more than four million people in over 40 countries.
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