FHI - ROADS Launches SafeTStop in Southern Sudan

SEPTEMBER 2006 — Several factors put the people of Southern Sudan at elevated risk of HIV infection: the long conflict with the North devastated the country, leaving the vast majority of residents in poverty; many people, including widows and orphans and vulnerable children, adopt high-risk survival strategies; there is tremendous movement among demobilizing soldiers and internally displaced persons; refugees are returning to Southern Sudan from countries with relatively high HIV prevalence; a growing number of truck drivers from Kenya, Uganda and other countries are visiting Southern Sudan as business opportunities increase and roads are reconstructed.

This month the Regional Outreach Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies (ROADS) Project will launch HIV programming in the country, following a two-pronged strategy. First, the project will reinforce and continue programming initiated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Rumbeck, Yei, Mundri and Tambura, including HIV awareness-raising, community mobilization, counseling and testing, and management of sexually transmitted infections. Second, ROADS will work with PSI and the International Refugee Committee to establish SafeTStop at the Customs Market in Juba, a major HIV hotspot and gathering place for mobile populations. ROADS efforts will help build the foundation for HIV programming in the country.

PHOTO: Children at a camp for internally displaced people in Juba, Southern Sudan. ROADS is preparing to launch SafeTStop at the Customs Market in Juba, and to reinforce work initiated by USAID in Rumbeck, Yei, Mundri and Tambura. (FHI/East Africa Regional Program)