Bill Gates is acting on an inspiration. He's offered a prize of $100,000 to anyone who can reinvent the condom. The twist; he wants a condom that actually improves the sexual experience.
Condoms are a very cheap and effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to protect against STDs, including HIV.
What Bill Gates wants is a condom that enhances the pleasure of sexual intimacy. A condom that feels so good, people prefer sex with it to sex without it.
We live in a world where sex without protection results in many pregnancies that are unwanted. Worldwide, estimates are that 40% of all pregnancies are unwanted. If one believes as I do that every child should be a wanted child, the fact that four in ten pregnancies are not wanted has to be troubling. How do we change that? First by making condoms widely available at little or no cost. Second, by taking steps to encourage their use.
The African continent is the epicenter for unwanted pregnancies, maternal death during childbirth, unchecked population growth, and the spread of STDs from unprotected sex. The biggest impediment to fixing these festering challenges is lack of reproductive choice and access to contraception. For women in Africa, as well as other places around the world, it's not just lack of access to contraception that is standing in the way of real reproductive choice. Much of the problem is with the social values of men. Too many remain culturally hostile to the use of contraception.
Bill Gates wants to change that by developing a way to enhance the sexual experience through the use of condoms that heighten the pleasure of sex. No telling if such a condom can actually be invented, but Gates has provided the incentive to try and make it happen. It's a terrific idea and very much worth pursuing.
Bill and Melinda Gates are doing great things with their mega-money. I admire them tremendously for being the example all people blessed with massive wealth should emulate.
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Bill Gates Condom Challenge: Foundation Will Pay You To Reinvent The Rubber
The Huffington Post | By Jessica Prois
Posted: 03/22/2013 1:49 pm EDT | Updated: 03/22/2013 1:51 pm EDT
Though condoms come in different textures, sizes and even tastes, these options aren't enticing enough to get people to actually use them in many parts of the world.
And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wants to change that. The nonprofit, which tackles global health issues, is seeking submissions for the "Next Generation Condom" challenge. The initiative asks for innovative designs that create a sexual experience that feels even better than not using a condom. The new design must also protect from the spread of HIV and disease, of course.
"What if we could develop a condom that would provide all the benefit of our current versions, without the drawbacks? Even better, what if we could develop one that was preferred to no condom?" The Gates Foundation's blog reads.
The foundation cites deterrents to using protection such as difficulties in negotiating condom use among commercial sex workers. What's more, in many places there are cultural barriers thwarting use of protection. In Zambia, for example, requesting use of a rubber can lead to domestic violence, AIDS Alliance reports.
Despite the facts surrounding protection from condoms, usage is sparse in places where HIV is most prevalent, Stephen Becker, deputy director of the HIV Program at the Gates Foundation, told MyNorthwest.com. So he said it's time to innovate.
"The more appealing a condom is for a man to use, the greater likelihood of use there will be," he said. "And we're not talking about a particularly expensive technology here by any means. They are the least expensive HIV technology."
The Gates Foundatinon will give away $100,000 to the winner through its Grand Challenge Exploration, $200 million in grants to fund research that fights disease in the developing world
Here is a link to the Gates Foundation Condom Challenge...http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Topics/Pages/NextGenerationCondomRound11.aspx
And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wants to change that. The nonprofit, which tackles global health issues, is seeking submissions for the "Next Generation Condom" challenge. The initiative asks for innovative designs that create a sexual experience that feels even better than not using a condom. The new design must also protect from the spread of HIV and disease, of course.
"What if we could develop a condom that would provide all the benefit of our current versions, without the drawbacks? Even better, what if we could develop one that was preferred to no condom?" The Gates Foundation's blog reads.
The foundation cites deterrents to using protection such as difficulties in negotiating condom use among commercial sex workers. What's more, in many places there are cultural barriers thwarting use of protection. In Zambia, for example, requesting use of a rubber can lead to domestic violence, AIDS Alliance reports.
Despite the facts surrounding protection from condoms, usage is sparse in places where HIV is most prevalent, Stephen Becker, deputy director of the HIV Program at the Gates Foundation, told MyNorthwest.com. So he said it's time to innovate.
"The more appealing a condom is for a man to use, the greater likelihood of use there will be," he said. "And we're not talking about a particularly expensive technology here by any means. They are the least expensive HIV technology."
The Gates Foundatinon will give away $100,000 to the winner through its Grand Challenge Exploration, $200 million in grants to fund research that fights disease in the developing world
Here is a link to the Gates Foundation Condom Challenge...http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Topics/Pages/NextGenerationCondomRound11.aspx
