WASHINGTON—As a panel of AIDS activists and educators drove home an impassioned and frank prevention message aimed at minority college-aged students—those who account for more than 55 percent of new AIDS cases—it wasn’t enough to get even two dozen Howard University students inside a small auditorium in the student Center on a rainy Friday afternoon to hear it.
The event was just one of many non-sports activities planned around the much-anticipated weekend football matchup between Morehouse College and Howard during the AT&T Nation’s Football Classic.
But that was okay with Jason Panda, CEO of bCondoms, a co-sponsor of the event. “The discussion,” he said, “was an opportunity to touch lives and educate students whether five or 500 showed up.”
bCondoms, a new Black-owned condom brand founded by Panda and two fellow Morehouse College alumni, and Greater Than AIDS, a national media campaign, are staging similar AIDS awareness events at other Black college campuses as part of the newly launched HBCU bHealthy Tour. The tour, which kicked off on Sept. 3 at Norfolk State University, will also stop at Benedict College, Morgan State University, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina A&T State University, Spelman College, and Morehouse College where it will conclude on Oct. 22.
Organizers say they want to leverage attendance at HBCU homecomings and football classics to help promote health and wellness, while marketing a condom company that they describe as socially responsible and poised to “make a change in the trajectory of HIV/AIDS in our community.”
For Erin Snowden, Howard’s director of Health Education, every day on campus is about trying to save a young life from contracting HIV/AIDS or some other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
“HIV and STDs are problems, college students having sex and with multiple partners and not using protection, well these are real problems,” said Snowden, one of the panelists.
