The Condoms? Please, Take One

"We're failing on this one," Martin conceded this week, though she remains optimistic that the government ultimately will succeed. As part of a citywide campaign to make HIV testing routine among residents 14 to 84, she wants the condom packages to be branded with the campaign's slogan and placed in arty containers chosen through a design contest. Businesses are more likely to display attractive containers.

The Life Guard project is identifying its prospective sites during late-night reconnaissance drives, particularly in Wards 7 and 8. Both have among the highest HIV/AIDS mortality rates in the District.

Organizers say it would be ideal to have condoms available at places that are open round-the-clock.

"They do save lives at 2 o'clock in the morning," said Anne Wiseman, program director at Metro Teen AIDS, one of the six groups involved. As a coalition, the groups focus on youths, substance abusers, gay men, and women who have suffered domestic violence. All are at higher risk of being infected.

In Southeast, New York Fried Chicken on Alabama Avenue signed on first. Next was SpinCycle at Good Hope and Naylor roads. Johnson, who works with the Condom Project, and Afzal, of the organization Prevention Works, spent a couple of hours Wednesday making the first deliveries and taping up signs announcing the condoms' availability.

"This is a good thing," the laundromat's night manager told them, speaking from the perspective of someone who has lost two relatives to AIDS. "This is a real good thing."

Volunteers will continually monitor and replenish supplies. And they could stay busy.

After just one night, less than a third of 400 condoms were left.