Safety pack - condom with mints

By VANESSA BIDOIS

HAMILTON - A new summer safety pack designed by Thames High School comes complete with a condom, a lubricant sachet and mints.

A total of 20,000 wallet-sized, fold-out cards will be given to young people at festivals, rock concerts, sports events, video parlours and cafes in the Waikato, King Country, Thames and Coromandel areas.

A further 400 trial packs containing sunscreen and band aids as well as food and activity vouchers will be distributed throughout the region.

The packs have been designed by students at Thames High School as part of a working party including health promoters, public health nurses, road safety coordinators, police, youth workers, iwi providers and Aids Foundation representatives.

Thames public health nurse Kathy Archibald said the teenagers used youth-relevant wording to get the messages across.

"They've kept us on track and made sure the messages are blunt, factual and in their own language," she said.

One of the young people, 16-year-old Renee Young, said adults tried to be street- smart but ended up sounding lame.

"We let them know what we thought teenagers should know ... and what's cool and what's not."

Kathy Archibald said the working party was concerned about young people's safety during the summer.

Police predict an influx of about 200,000 people - many of them teenagers - to the Coromandel area.

Ministry of Health research has found that the Waikato region has the highest rate of chlamydia among young people, while unsafe sex by teenagers was often linked with binge drinking.

The Safe Summer campaign begins on Monday and has been financed by the Alcohol Advisory Council, community health groups, police, the Coromandel Independent Living Trust and district road safety community funds.