Inventing a simpler wheel: Designing a condom vending machine capable of survival and repair in third world environments

I've recently joined Dr. Ron Eglash (Homepage) and David A. Banks (Relevant) in their endeavors to fight AIDS and STDs in Ghana through increased availability of low-profile options to purchase condoms. Our belief is that sociological issues prevent many from purchasing condoms at currently available locations, such as stores and health clinics. Field research in Ghana indicates that there's unfortunately a stigma associated with sexual activity among many Ghanaians, and that inroads to STD prevention can be made by providing discreet, readily available condom sources.

To that end, we intend to design a condom vending machine, with some specific qualities which differentiate it from those commonly seen here in the States.

While the ubiquitous "gas station restroom" condom vending machines are available for purchase, stocking, and shipping to Ghana immediately, they don't quite fit the needs of the Ghana market. Major issues with off-the-shelf units revolve around:

• Lack of readily available repair parts in Ghana -- Most designs are copyrighted, with schematics or replacement parts only available from a single, distant manufacturer -- quite an issue in a developing country. We intend to rectify this through gross simplification of the design, and by placing the design under open source/creative commons styled restrictions, distributing detailed information on replacement of components using available materials (more on that later), etc.
• Ruggedness concerns -- Again, the environment which we expect these devices to be exposed to will likely be far harsher than that expected by manufacturers of bathroom-wall units. This would render OTS units entirely cost-ineffective, they're surprisingly expensive.
• As part of something bigger -- Using the aforementioned public domain-styled design theory, we hope that our designs can be improved and distributed to far wider markets and saturations. One research team can only do so much, but the knowledge produced can do incredible things if properly disseminated.

My role in this project is that of Mechanical Systems Engineer. I've been tasked with analyzing previous designs, of which some have been prototyped to varying degrees of success, providing a workable design, building and testing prototypes, and developing a final production design from all this.