Brazil’s government will hand out nine million
condoms for free around Rio de Janeiro
during the Olympics in August, a push meant
to encourage safe s** and also defend the
Amazon rainforest.
Rio’s local Olympic organizing committee
said about 450,000 of the sustainably-
produced condoms would be destined for
athletes and staff housed in the Olympic
Village.
The rest will be made widely available to the
many visitors who will be arriving in the city
in just a few weeks, the Health Ministry said.
All the condoms to be distributed are
produced by Natex, a factory in the western
Amazonian state of Acre, deep in the
rainforest near Brazil’s border with Bolivia.
The factory, run by the Acre state government,
uses latex gathered from Amazon rubber trees
by tappers who are employed by a
government-run program designed to protect
their traditional livelihood, foster sustainable
use of the rainforest and deter illegal loggers.
The tappers see themselves as guardians of
the rainforest.
On a recent outing, Raimundo Mendes de
Barros, a 71-year-old lifelong rubber tapper
with a stark white beard, gathered the milky-
white latex dripping into metal buckets hooked
at the base of countless trees. Above, the
tropical sun was filtered by the Amazon
canopy.
Barros spoke with pride about the fierce fight
he and other sustainable rubber tappers wage
to maintain their craft.
"Our condom factory, aside from guaranteeing
a fair price for the rubber, employs hundreds,”
he said.
“It gives the world a product – the condom –
that will be very present there in Rio, to fight
disease and help with birth control.”
For decades, tappers like Barros have been on
the front line of pushing Brazilian leaders to
do more to halt deforestation, which is mostly
caused by the illegal clearing of forest for
ranching, soy farms and timber extraction.
The fight has sometimes come at a heavy
cost as farmers and loggers have sometimes
retaliated with hired guns. Scores of people
have been killed over the years trying to
protect the forest, most notably the
internationally known environmentalist and
rubber tapper Chico Mendes.
His 1988 murder in Xapuri, where the condom
factory now stands, helped galvanise the
government to take serious measures to battle
deforestation and the violence against Amazon
defenders.
For several years Brazil’s Health Ministry has
distributed millions of condoms from the
factory for free at big events around Brazil –
most notably the annual bacchanal of
Carnival.

http://9jaspecial.com.ng/2016/07/05/2016-rio-olympics-brazil-distribute-9-million-condoms/

simplyolat:
Brazil’s government will hand out nine million
condoms for free around Rio de Janeiro
during the Olympics in August, a push meant
to encourage safe s** and also defend the
Amazon rainforest.
Rio’s local Olympic organizing committee
said about 450,000 of the sustainably-
produced condoms would be destined for
athletes and staff housed in the Olympic
Village.
The rest will be made widely available to the
many visitors who will be arriving in the city
in just a few weeks, the Health Ministry said.
All the condoms to be distributed are
produced by Natex, a factory in the western
Amazonian state of Acre, deep in the
rainforest near Brazil’s border with Bolivia.
The factory, run by the Acre state government,
uses latex gathered from Amazon rubber trees
by tappers who are employed by a
government-run program designed to protect
their traditional livelihood, foster sustainable
use of the rainforest and deter illegal loggers.
The tappers see themselves as guardians of
the rainforest.
On a recent outing, Raimundo Mendes de
Barros, a 71-year-old lifelong rubber tapper
with a stark white beard, gathered the milky-
white latex dripping into metal buckets hooked
at the base of countless trees. Above, the
tropical sun was filtered by the Amazon
canopy.
Barros spoke with pride about the fierce fight
he and other sustainable rubber tappers wage
to maintain their craft.
"Our condom factory, aside from guaranteeing
a fair price for the rubber, employs hundreds,”
he said.
“It gives the world a product – the condom –
that will be very present there in Rio, to fight
disease and help with birth control.”
For decades, tappers like Barros have been on
the front line of pushing Brazilian leaders to
do more to halt deforestation, which is mostly
caused by the illegal clearing of forest for
ranching, soy farms and timber extraction.
The fight has sometimes come at a heavy
cost as farmers and loggers have sometimes
retaliated with hired guns. Scores of people
have been killed over the years trying to
protect the forest, most notably the
internationally known environmentalist and
rubber tapper Chico Mendes.
His 1988 murder in Xapuri, where the condom
factory now stands, helped galvanise the
government to take serious measures to battle
deforestation and the violence against Amazon
defenders.
For several years Brazil’s Health Ministry has
distributed millions of condoms from the
factory for free at big events around Brazil –
most notably the annual bacchanal of
Carnival.

http://9jaspecial.com.ng/2016/07/05/2016-rio-olympics-brazil-distribute-9-million-condoms/

Applying visa sharpaly