Maritza & Mario - Dominican Republic

Objective of Comic: :

To promote condom use among female commercial sex workers and their customers, working men in the Dominican Republic.

Description:

AIDSCOM worked over five years with female commercial sex workers in order to design outreach materials. Qualitative research was done regarding the ways customers protest condom use and how the sex workers handle these protests. Working with the ideas, terminology and direct quotes from the focus group research, AIDSCOM created Los triunfos de Maritza ('The triumphs of Maritza'). Maritza, a savvy sex worker, uses verbal arguments and coquetry--maneuvers derived from the focus group research--to counter her customers' refusals to use condoms, succeeding with four out of five men in the story.

In the Mario comic book developed for working men who may be customers of commercial sex workers, Mario's friend challenges him to put a condom on a beer bottle correctly, then shows him the correct steps. In a field experiment conducted during the development of the booklet, 300 men exposed to this "skills" intervention reported higher levels of condom use several weeks after the intervention than did men in the control group.

Location:

Dominican Republic

Dates:

1990

Project Cost:

Not available

Agencies Involved:

AIDSCOM/Academy for Educational Development

Media Used:

2 comics, Maritza and Mario

Sources:

Smith, et.al. (1993)
Personal communication with William Smith, Academy for Educational Development, 10/94 For a copy of the full report, contact the US hotline at 800-656-4533 or email webmaster@kff.org

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