Tanzania Uses Wall Murals For Sex Education (PHOTOS)

Like subway posters or highway billboards, wall murals have long been popular as a form of cheap advertising in Tanzania for such products as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Kilimanjaro beer. But as GlobalPost's Iva Skoch has found, the murals have taken on a new, albeit more provocative, role: promoting sex education throughout Dar Es Salaam, the country's largest city.

Little is considered taboo in the colorful new ads, which depict everything from general condom use and masturbation to more severe topics like teen pregnancy and female genital mutilation. While the murals may often be done in a tongue-in-cheek manner, Tanzania's statistics are considerably less so. The current HIV rate hovers at about 6 percent, while 40 percent of 18-year-old girls are already mothers or currently pregnant.

Officials say the occasionally racy murals are already proving effective, and many local schools are opting to follow suit with their own sex ed walls. "If you use a photograph, people don't identify with the person," said Alex Ngaiza, HIV program manager at the health communication organization PSI. "But with a mural, everyone can relate."

Read the full article, and view the amazing full gallery, here.

See photos of Tanzania's sex education murals, courtesy of GlobalPost, below:

Comments

[Johnny Yang]

04:32 PM on 12/03/2010

It's a good start and hopefully the messages get across. It seems like we need some murals here because there seem to be a lot of sexually irresponsible people out there.

http://www.realsexadvice.com/

[Gigity]

03:34 PM on 12/02/2010

Is that first lady pooping?

[Blackorpheus]

08:29 PM on 11/10/2010

Yes. By all means. The more racy the murals, the better for sex education. The same applies to the Internet: the raunchier the triple-X-rated photos and videos, the better for sex education.

[zfire]

02:05 PM on 11/09/2010

LOL!

[Edward Standley]

09:34 PM on 11/08/2010

Sometimes the simplest things are effective. About 20 yrs ago, a push for vasectomies in India was going nowhere until they hit on a solution. Offer a free pocket radio to each man who would agree. They couldn't snip fast enough.

[hey0there]

11:25 PM on 11/08/2010

Arranged marriages is how they do things in India, and the goal is to have kids. Any unmarried man with a vasectomy will never be considered marriage material, and would put them so low on the totem pole, only the gays, mentally ill, the old duds who fell through the cracks and never managed to procure a wife were the ones lining up. In India, you are not worth a thing unless you are married with multiple children.

[Edward Standley]

03:29 AM on 11/09/2010

That would led me to assume that the majority of "snipees" were married men with sufficient children. Or guys with W.C. Field's opinion of kids. :)

[zfire]

02:06 PM on 11/09/2010

And here I await longingly for the zombie apocalypse.

[LMPE]

06:34 PM on 11/08/2010

Bristol Palin could take a lesson from those

[keepemguessing]

09:56 PM on 11/08/2010

So could Bill Clinton ;)

[OutAtFirst]

05:07 PM on 11/08/2010

It translates into some guy fantasizing about two bulldogs in a gunnysack.

[biabouman41]

02:35 PM on 11/08/2010

And this is a muslim country, but a sane one.

[TanzaniaTeacher]

06:10 PM on 11/08/2010

Actually, 1/3 Christian, 1/3 Muslim, 1/3 Indigenous.

[Snafu]

01:54 PM on 11/08/2010

Sir Mix-a-Lot must be of Tanzanian descent.

[ret0dd]

01:46 PM on 11/08/2010

Translation? Any Swahili speakers about?

[jourdankr]

01:50 PM on 11/08/2010

If you click on the link to the full gallery, you can read the translations on the Globalpost site. I wanted to know what they said, too.

[Trizah7]

05:09 PM on 11/08/2010

1. Be satisfied with the one you are with.
2. Concentrate on education and avoid kinky thoughts - LOL
3. Let's have safe sex.

[wwoody]

01:09 PM on 11/08/2010

This is a little bit off the wall.

[derrickhoyle]

01:26 PM on 11/08/2010

Actually, it's completely on the wall.

[lizt]

01:43 PM on 11/08/2010

Ha! Perfect. Fanned.

[wwoody]

03:13 PM on 11/08/2010

Nice art work. fan