CONDOMS GROWING ON TREES IN SAFE SEX PUSH
(Australia) A health service in Western Australia's Kimberley region has come up with an innovative way of promoting safe sex in Aboriginal communities. The program provides free condoms at unusual outdoor locations. Posters around Fitzroy Crossing advertise "Free Condoms in a Tree Near You." Under the program, canisters of condoms are hung from trees where different Aboriginal language groups traditionally gather. Patrick Davies from the Nindin-lin-gaari Cultural Health Center says the idea follows concern over the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases. He says previously people were embarrassed about getting condoms from the only outlets in town—the hospital or the news agency. "We were able to target the people from outlying communities when they came into town by hanging these PVC containers under those trees—they take about 2,500 or 3,000 every month," he said.