PRESS RELEASE

30^Th of January 2010

Campaign “Be STRONG, say STOP”.

A new campaign to create safe sex awareness for the Afro-Caribbean society in the UK has been launched today by Marie Stopes International. The campaign “Be STRONG, say STOP” is encouraging women to look after their sexual health.

At Marie Stopes International UK clinics we often see young people wanting to seek information and services, however being reserved when it comes to seek help, is resulting in an unintended sexually transmitted infection. We hope that the first phase of the campaign, “Be STRONG, say STOP”, will encourage younger women to talk more openly about their options and fears, and find a method to best suit their individual needs and circumstances, enabling them to practice safer sex.

The campaign will run for four months until end of April 2010. The counting up timer has travelled around the UK for the whole of January, showing how many people get infected every day.

From today the www.bestrong.com website for young women is lunched in order to get them talking and registering their views on the safe sex issues. When they register they will receive a bracelet to promote their confidence and strength in a healthier sexual life and the goal of the Marie Stopes Internationalcampaign.

Yekaterina Odintsova spokes person for the campaign at Marie Stopes International said: “Marie StopesInternational welcomes the new national campaign to promote more open and honest discussions about safe sex.”

Prevention is better than cure, and the evidence is clear that when women are able to talk about sex, and are provided with information and access to a variety of contraceptive methods, reductions in sexually transmitted infections rates will improve.

- END -