FHI - Linking Truck Drivers with HIV Services

JUNE 2008 — Like many truck drivers in East and Central Africa, Robert Nyeko, 43, spends long periods away from his home in Uganda. Until recently, he had difficulty accessing health services while on the road and found few recreational opportunities in the evening beyond drinking in bars and guest houses. But recently, while delivering goods in Rwanda, another driver referred him to the SafeTStop HIV Resource Center in Magerwa, a bustling and densely populated area of Kigali. "This is the first time I've visited the center," Nyeko said. "I understand the benefits."

At the alcohol-free center, Nyeko and his fellow drivers play pool and other games, watch satellite television, and access information on HIV, health services, and condoms. Recently, they attended an information session on sexually transmitted infections facilitated in Swahili by the Rwanda truck drivers union, a ROADS subgrantee. Afterward, Nyeko decided to go for onsite HIV counseling and testing.

The center receives about 100 visitors a day. They are mostly truck drivers from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, but residents of Magerwa, including sexual partners of the truck drivers, also come to access information on HIV and health services from trained facilitators. As a further incentive to visit, the Magerwa resource center will soon offer drivers English-language and other adult education classes.

To link drivers with HIV services while they are away from home, the ROADS Project established similar resource centers along major transport corridors in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Djibouti. SafeTStop HIV Resource Centers will also soon be established in Juba, Kaya, and Rumbek, South Sudan.

PHOTO: Robert Nyeko at the SafeTStop HIV Resource Center in Magerwa, Rwanda.