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FindingsChirundu, Zambia This town is situated on the Zambian side of the arid Zambezi Valley in Zambia's Southern Province, 142 kilometers south of Lusaka and 366 kilometers north of Harare. The Siavonga District Council office in Siavonga, 140 kilometers away, estimates that the population of Chirundu border post is 7,000. Chirundu has an estimated 52 formal houses -- nearly all middle-income brick houses for customs, immigration, police and health officials -- and more than 1,000 informal houses, primarily in the two informal settlements, Gabon and ChiBhaghedi. Gabon has approximately 500 houses and ChiBhaghedi has about 250. There are a further 350 informal houses in the formal settlement. Dwellings in informal settlements are largely mud houses, although some are brick under thatch. Average house occupancy is about four. There are no recreational facilities, apart from taverns. The largest sources of formal income in urban Chirundu -- freight, construction, retail, customs, domestic service, teaching, immigration and police -- employ more than 400 people. The largest sources of urban informal income are sex work, which supports about 500 people (including visiting sex workers), money changing, which supports about 120 people, and vending, which supports about 80 people. Most women in Chirundu rely primarily on vending and sex work for income. Whereas much of the area around Chirundu town in Zimbabwe is set aside for wildlife, the rural areas surrounding Chirundu, Zambia, are used for commercial and subsistence agriculture. The farms outside Chirundu are large, employing more than 400 permanent workers and 2,000 seasonal workers. Sources of formal income in Chirundu, Zambia
Sex workers Through careful observation, enumeration in guesthouses, bars and streets, and interviews with health workers and peer educators, the researchers estimated that Chirundu has about 300 permanent sex workers. Approximately 200 more transient sex workers visit Chirundu at peak periods, particularly at month's end, when the border is busiest. Sex workers seek clients primarily at hotels and taverns. There is no street sex work except on the main highway. Sex workers' major clients are truckers, especially those who pay in foreign currency. Sex workers value South African clients, reporting that they pay up to US$20, which is over 10 times more than local men can pay. Competition for foreign clients is acute, however, and most sex workers remain poor, though perhaps less so than other women. Trucking The researchers enumerated 36 trucking companies using the Chirundu, Zambia, route. No trucking offices were identified at the border, probably because Chirundu is only two hours from Lusaka. Trucking companies using the Chirundu, Zambia route
Seventy to 102 trucks were counted crossing the border on three random days. The number of trucks parking at the border on three random days ranged from 53 to 61. Trucks crossing Chirundu, Zambia, border on three random days
Truckers' major southbound destination is South Africa, and their major northbound destinations are Lusaka, the Copperbelt and Congo. The Congo war has disrupted Congo's internal production and trade and increased its reliance on imports. Extensive troop, munitions and food movements to and from Congo have greatly increased trucking traffic at Chirundu. The longest journeys are to Durban, Congo and Tanzania, which can take two weeks. Major goods transported are food, fuel, raw materials and machinery. Days truckers spend away from home
Truckers frequent four hotels and taverns in or near the town where they seek casual/commercial sex partners. In addition, truckers seek casual/commercial partners on the main highway and in the formal and informal settlements. There are no guesthouses in Chirundu, and most truckers sleep in their cabins. At night, truckers park primarily at the customs bay, the tavern and along the roads. Informal traders Some Zambian women living in or passing through the Chirundu area rely upon informal trade, including cross-border trade, for survival. They export items for sale in Zimbabwe or import goods for sale in Zambia. Zimbabwean restrictions on the export of maize and Zambian restrictions on the import of Zimbabwean milk have affected the import trade. The researchers counted from 78 to 135 informal traders crossing the border on three random days. The numbers of traders counted sleeping at the border was very low. Few women sleep there because Lusaka is only two hours from the border. Informal traders crossing and sleeping at the Chirundu, Zambia border on three random days
Informal traders meet primarily in three market areas. One market is behind customs and the other is some distance away, further down the road. The third, a small market on the main road, is not a daily market and sometimes shifts to the bigger market. Health services Chirundu has one mission hospital and two small clinics. Mtendere Mission Hospital is situated just outside Chirundu town. It has 120 beds and about 40 outpatients daily, just three to four of whom are STI clients. Some staff members have received in-house training in STI management. Mtendere has better drug supplies than most Zambian institutions because of assistance from its Italian Catholic affiliation. Kampali Clinic was originally built by Masstock Farm and is now run by the Zambian government with Irish aid. It has a clinical officer and a nurse who see about 40 outpatients daily, only one of whom typically has an STI. Most patients are from Masstock Farm. Chiawa clinic is on the edge of Chiawa communal lands, where people displaced by the construction of Kariba Dam were resettled. Its catchment is the Jerry Gabin farm and Kabwadu village. It is bigger than Kapali clinic, with 12 beds and about ten outpatients daily. However, because it is less centrally located than Kapali, Chiawa serves fewer patients. It averages one STI client every few days. Education Chirundu's one school offers grades 1 through 9. Mandenga Basic School has 582 pupils (299 boys and 283 girls) in grades 1 through 7 and 150 pupils (82 boys and 68 girls) in grades 8 and 9. Fewer than 10 percent of children go beyond grade 9, travelling to Lusitu, Siavonga or Kafue to study. NGOs in Chirundu, Zambia Mtendere Mission Hospital is an NGO. It receives assistance from Harvest Help Zambia, an NGO with a branch office 140 kilometers away in the district capital of Siavonga and a headquarters 180 kilometers away in Munyama. The University of Zambia conducts several large research studies on rural development, health and HIV in central Chiawa, about an hour from Chirundu. Condoms In 1998, Mtendere Mission Hospital dispensed 1,300 unbranded government condoms and Kampali Clinic distributed another 1,600. A similar but unreported number of condoms was dispensed by Chiawa Clinic. Socially marketed Lovers Plus and Maximum condoms are available at Madhibha Bar and in the local market. HIV/AIDS data There has been no HIV serosurveillance in Chirundu, but hospital and clinic staff members confirm that HIV disease is widespread. Chirundu is believed to have one of the highest HIV prevalence levels in Zambia. HIV/AIDS prevention activities For its size, Chirundu has significant HIV/AIDS activities. This may be because of its proximity to Lusaka, the presence of a mission hospital, the research work done in Chiawa and the NGO work by Harvest Help elsewhere in Siavonga District. Health workers use syndromic STI management, albeit without training. HIV counseling has been introduced at the hospital and, with support from NORAD, testing may be introduced. The hospital also supports a peer education project for low-income men and women. Public and socially marketed condoms are distributed on a very limited scale. Risk Environment Profile: Chirundu, Zambia Chirundu, Zambia, is very different from Chirundu, Zimbabwe, largely because of its proximity to Lusaka and the commercial and subsistence farms that surround it. In Zimbabwe, Chirundu is largely surrounded by state wildlife land, which is not inhabited by people. While truckers are clearly central to HIV transmission in Chirundu, Zambia, there may also be a need to address commercial and subsistence agricultural workers near the town, particularly given the highly seasonal and thus migratory nature of their employment. Farming communities have a visible social impact on the social and sexual character of the town. There is acute rural poverty, which is expressed in rural movement in and out of Chirundu town and in sex work and vending. Unlike those in Chirundu, Zimbabwe, sex workers in Chirundu, Zambia, come largely from areas near the border. Chirundu has Zambia's most explicit commercial sex industry. Most sex workers live in two informal settlements, Gabon and ChiBhaghedhi, in mud and thatch houses owned by Lusaka entrepreneurs. Community members estimate that one in four women in these informal settlements is a sex worker. In addition, many mobile sex workers come in from rural Chiawa and as far afield as Lusaka and Siavonga. In a context of rural poverty, girls as young as 12 are reported to engage in sex work. Older sex workers complained that younger rural girls would accept clients for as little as food or soap. Sex workers in Chirundu reported finding clients primarily in hotels and taverns, though some also acknowledged going to parked trucks to seek clients. As elsewhere, truckers -- particularly South African drivers -- are the clients of choice. They are considered less mean and abusive than local clients. Moneychangers are also clients. Many sex workers said they entered sex work when they became pregnant and were abandoned by their boyfriends and repudiated by their families. Nationwide, over 60 percent of Zambian women become pregnant or have a child by age 20. An increasing number of orphans are entering sex work, representing a vicious cycle of HIV illness and disease. Sex workers said they preferred to use condoms, but until recently, condoms were hard to obtain in Chirundu. If condoms are unavailable, they have no choice but to accept unprotected sex. They also noted that Maximum and Lovers Plus are now sold at the market and motel. The average age of truckers is 35, and most have been driving on the Chirundu route for five years or more. Many have steady girlfriends as well as sex-worker partners. Truckers are aware of the extent to which Chirundu is their creation. As one said: "If there were no truckers, there would be no huts here." Although there are informal traders in Chirundu, many informants said that most vendors also practiced sex work. Of all the sites analyzed, Chirundu, Zambia, represents the closest link between a highway and border site and an adjoining rural subsistence community. The site also has potentially greater resources (including the mission hospital) for addressing such a link, than the smaller, more isolated Chirundu, Zimbabwe. |
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