REDSO Helps Launch Multi-Country HIV Program to Benefit Mobile Populations and Communities

MARIAKANI, KENYA—High-risk mobile populations, including truck drivers who work the northern transport corridor that begins in Mombasa and extends through Sudan, Rwanda and beyond, will benefit from an innovative HIV program launched here on March 9, 2005.

The SafeTStop program brings government, businesses and community groups together to ensure essential services for HIV prevention and care, and to address the impact of AIDS on the community. SafeTStop aims to create a healthier environment for truckers and host communities, enabling more resources to be spent on improving economic development and alternative work opportunities for low-income women, orphans, youth and men.

The program was officially launched at 8:15 a.m. on March 9, when a convoy departed the Kokotoni Medical Clinic, eight kilometers east of Mariakani, Coast Province. Once it arrived, a celebration with prominent dignitaries and several hundred community residents marked the occasion. Dr. Esther Getambo, Provincial AIDS Coordinator; Godfrey Onyango, Executive Director of the Transport and Transit Coordinating Authority; and Dr. Andrew Sisson, Director of USAID's Regional Economic Development Services Office (REDSO), all lent support.

SafeTStop sites will offer a range of HIV services, including voluntary counseling and testing and diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. The sites will also offer education and training opportunities; entertainment; faith-based services; support for orphans and vulnerable children; and other services to improve local economic, social and health conditions.

"Imagine you're tired, you're driving along and seeing signs like 'Health Clinic Open' or 'Hot Fresh Food Just Ahead,'" says Dr. Jeff Ashley, Chief of REDSO's regional HIV/AIDS program. "Your eyes are going to light up. Besides the medical care and the clean, inexpensive hotel rooms, we're offering the community something new: healthy interventions that will reduce the vulnerability of the population to diseases like HIV/AIDS by offering them an array of services beyond the norm: alcohol, seedy rooms and the usual, often unhealthy, distractions."

Mariakani is the first site along the SafeTStop program route. Future SafeTStops are planned (in Kenya) in Malaba and Busia, as well as in Djibouti, Rwanda, Sudan and Uganda. SafeTStop is a project of REDSO and jointly funded by REDSO and the participating USAID country offices.

Watch a video report on the program by clicking the links below:

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For more information contact: Gail Goodridge, Family Health International REDSO Project Director at 254-0723-440-945 (ggoodridge@fhi.or.ke).

Photo: Video still from SafeTStop program launch film. (FHI)