By Nangamso Mabindla
12 October 2005

TRUCKING Against Aids is set to roll into East London.

The project was launched in 1999 to halt the spread of HIV and Aids in the country's road freight industry.

Project manager Tertius Wessels said one of the programme's key aims was to reduce the spread of the virus in the road freight industry, and to provide assistance to truckers who were already infected.

Since its inception, 10 wellness centres have been established on main trucking routes in South Africa. At these centres truck drivers and sex workers are educated, counselled and given condoms.

Beaufort West, Harrismith, Ventersburg, Mussina and Port Elizabeth are some of the places that have such centres, and now the team is assessing East London to see if there is a need for a wellness centre.

"We want to do a KAP survey to determine the viability of establishing the eleventh clinic here in East London. We want to look at volumes to ensure that we know what we are dealing with here," Wessels explained.

With his team, Wessels has looked at a popular truck stop on the West Bank, where long-distance truckers often spend their nights.

"This is excellent; you have male and female toilets for truckers and sex workers. There is also a shop for them to buy food. It could be a very good place for a roadside clinic."

The truck stop can take up to 40 trucks, but Wessels said the owners were investigating extending the area.

"Next year they are looking at increasing the parking area so that it takes up to 80 of these big trucks. This could be a very good place to put our clinics as some of these drives deal with sex workers in the area," he said.

The team wanted to launch Trucking Against Aids in Buffalo City in November. "If everything goes according to plan, we are looking at launching the project on either 15 or 29 November."

The team would work closely with the provincial department of health and Buffalo City Municipality.

Trucking Against Aids aims to create awareness about HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted infections among long-distance truck drivers and women at risk.

Launched under the banner of the National Bargaining Council, it was an example of a partnership between the private sector and national, provincial and local government departments.