Combine safe sex and social entrepreneurship and you get L., a new social venture that aims to directly derail the over 5,000 HIV transmissions and 4,000 AIDS deaths a day across the African continent. How? L. Founder Talia Frenkel plans to do it with an environmentally friendly, women-empowering condom product line.
Frenkel selected condoms because of the “little to no innovation” in the industry. Condom manufacturing giants focused all their attention on “men” and none on women. Some even used toxic chemicals that were harmful to female bodies.
L. condoms are made in Thailand from sustainably sourced natural latex that is glycerin- and paraben-free. They are triple-tested for quality and come in recycled paper packaging that is 100% recyclable. L. also follows the one-for-one mantra: for every condom bought, one will be donated in a developing country. “We hope to give every consumer the choice to be part of a movement that can make massive impact with simple day-to-day decisions,” says Frenkel. “By doing so, we can stop the cycle of HIV transmission and improve the quality of life for women everywhere.”
Frenkel has witnessed firsthand what it was like to be HIV-positive in the third world during her tenure as a photojournalist and Red Cross photographer capturing the images of girls and women affected by the epidemic. In Malawi, Frenkel discovered that the term for a sexually transmitted disease, regardless of its origin, is “woman’s disease.” And in Sub-Saharan Africa women are often treated as a subordinates and expected to only become pregnant, bear children and fulfill the sexual desires of their husbands. These experiences led Frenkel to the create L. in 2007, launching publicly in mid-2010. “One of the major inspiring forces that led to the formation of L. is how preventable HIV/AIDS is in comparison to so many of the disasters I’ve photographed,” says Frenkel.
According to the 2010 UNAIDS Global Report, out of the total number of people living with HIV worldwide in 2009, 68% resided in Sub-Saharan Africa. That’s an estimated 22.5 million that are HIV-positive. This may make the one-for-one donation-based approach seem small, but if one out of 20 condom consumers in the U.S. chose L., Frenkel says that the three highest-prevalence African countries — Swaziland, Botswana and Lesotho — would be equipped with enough condoms to cover their HIV-prevention needs.
Even for Africans that can afford condoms, the option isn’t always there. According to the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, nine out of 10 African countries with high HIV prevalence goes through a condom stock-out, with stock-outs commonly lasting over two months.
“The number of lives affected are staggering,” explains Frenkel. “The AIDS epidemic has taken more human life than all the wars, famines, floods and deadly diseases on the African continent combined.”
L. has been credited for re-inventing the one-for-one model by focusing on building capacity and facilitating the creation of long-term distribution channels. Currently, Frenkel is exploring partnerships with female-run social enterprise programs, which would provide condoms to women who in turn sell them as a commodity, supporting their livelihoods and the longer term goal of creating a culture of buying condoms.
L. will roll out it’s first donation program in Uganda this year through a partnership with Direct Relief International, an organization with over 60 years of experience in distributing medical supplies to developing countries.
The call for condom support in Uganda, a country with a history of condom stock-outs, couldn’t have come at a better time. HIV/AIDS news site, PlusNews, reported on January 18, “that for the third month running, men and women seeking condoms at local health centers in some northern Ugandan districts have found empty dispensers.”
Condoms are currently on pre-sale at LoveBeginsWithL.com.
To get a pack of one-for-one, vegan condoms now, check out Sir Richard’s Condom Company, a similarly focused social enterprise.
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