has a really good, informative post on what is standing in the way of young Vietnamese couples wearing condoms. Really worth a read.
Also worth reading is the Visual Culture section of the National Library of Medicine site
A bit wierd, but full of informative info is Sexuality Education's Safer Sex area. They also have a very informative downloadable PDF file "Safer Sex" that might help you with wording and vocabulary.
The BBC has a good article on "Safe sex: Why isn't the message getting through?"
One strategy that has proven quite effective is enabling and supporting sex workers to practice safe sex. In some countries like Thailand this has led to a large drop in the incidence of new HIV infection. There is a free, online book called "Making Sex Work Safe" which covers a number of ways in which to empower sex workers to refuse to work in situations where safe sex is not practiced. You can download the complete PDF of the book here.
The issue of whether or not to promote abstinence (not having sex at all) as a safe sex practice has been argued back and forth. Here's an interesting article of the statistical outcome: Princeton Researcher Finds ‘Safer Sex’ Message Alters Behavior Longer Than ‘Abstinence’
Listen to an interesting roundtable discussion on NPR radio about successful Safe Sex Messages. You need Real Audio or Windows Media to listen to this.
Here is the summary of a Lancet article that could give us some insight as to what messages are most effective when promoting safe sex:
Factors that shape young people's sexual behaviour: a systematic review
Summary
Background
Since nearly half of new HIV infections worldwide occur among young people aged 15–24 years, changing sexual behaviour in this group will be crucial in tackling the pandemic. Qualitative research is starting to reveal how social and cultural forces shape young people's sexual behaviour and can help explain why information campaigns and condom distribution programmes alone are often not enough to change it. We undertook a systematic review to identify key themes emerging from such research, to help inform policymakers developing sexual health programmes, and guide future research.
Methods
We reviewed 268 qualitative studies of young people's sexual behaviour published between 1990 and 2004. We developed a method of comparative thematic analysis in which we coded each document according to themes they contained. We then identified relations between codes, grouping them accordingly into broader overall themes. Documents were classified as either primary or secondary depending on their quality and whether they contained empirical data. From the 5452 reports identified, we selected 246 journal articles and 22 books for analysis.
Findings
Seven key themes emerged: young people assess potential sexual partners as “clean” or “unclean”; sexual partners have an important influence on behaviour in general; condoms are stigmatising and associated with lack of trust; gender stereotypes are crucial in determining social expectations and, in turn, behaviour; there are penalties and rewards for sex from society; reputations and social displays of sexual activity or inactivity are important; and social expectations hamper communication about sex. The themes do not seem to be exclusive to any particular country or cultural background, and all themes were present, in varying degrees, in all countries assessed.
Interpretation
This study summarises key qualitative findings that help in understanding young people's sexual behaviour and why they might have unsafe sex; policymakers must take these into account when designing HIV programmes. Considerable overlap exists between current studies, which indicates the need to broaden the scope of future work.
Finally, take a look at The Pleasure Project site. After a lot of research, it has become obvious that safe sex messages that promote pleasure and sex along with safe sex messages are far more effective. The Pleasure Project Site promotes and links to campaigns that mix the two.
They presented about their experiences of training health workers in Cambodia and there is a powerpoint presentation of their talk
