Ntombifuthi Luthuli is the director of the Correctional Services Programme at TB HIV Care, a non-profit focusing on integrated care for people with TB, HIV and other diseases. When she started out as a nurse, she had to be creative with her messaging about condoms to dispel misconceptions and inspire inner condom use.
This article is part of an African Alliance series celebrating 25 years of the inner condom in South Africa and the people who helped to establish the world’s biggest state-funded inner condom project.
Ntombifuthi Luthuli started out as a professional nurse with a BCur in Nursing Education & Nursing Management, going on to do her Master’s in Public Health.
“I started educating and promoting condom use to all my clients when I started practicing as a nurse in the public health space,” Luthuli explains. “Initially there was so much resistance from people regarding using condoms and they had their own myths and misconceptions. It was challenging to communicate with clients on condoms use and one had to be really creative in messages about condoms,” she says.
Luthuli joined TB HIV Care in November 2019 as a Site Manager for the Sex Worker Project in uMgungundlovu and progressed to be the KZN Assistant Programme Manager for the TB Programme in November 2021. She later joined the PPPrev Programme in May 2023 as a Quality Improvement Technical Lead and was acting Regional Manager for the eThekwini district, where she forged strategic multi-sectoral partnerships with political leadership and local partners working in the HIV response in the district.
Luthuli has since gone on to become the director of the Correctional Services Programme, after her experience in working with vulnerable populations.
“Using an internal condom has numerous advantages, such as they protect both partners from STIs including HIV, they provide a sense of independence to a woman as she is now empowered and able to take control of her sexual and reproductive health,” Luthuli explains.
“They provide protection against unwanted pregnancies and allow the woman to space her pregnancies as planned. They are great even for people who are allergic to latex. The fact that they can be inserted for the duration of 8 hours is also very empowering to a woman because it completely eliminates the process of condom negotiation,” she adds.
She hopes that inner condoms can be more accessible to all communities, including the most vulnerable communities, to assist in the fight against gender-based violence, providing support and relief to women who are in abusive relationships.
Do you want to know more about how the inner condom can help those in abusive situations? Get in touch with us on X and Instagram. We’re at @Afri_Alliance on both platforms.