Truckers taught about AIDS risk
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111 The United Nations World Feed Programme (NWFP) has launched a campaign to persuade Ethiopian truckers to reduce their sexual promiscuity because of the risk that they will he struck down by AIDS.
The programme will focus on the 2,300 Ethiopian truck drivers hired by the NWFP to deliver food from the port of Djibouti to the interior of the war and drought ravaged country, which is also a centre of AIDS. More than 10% of the population is HIV positive.
The UN says: "Truck drivers are considered especially vulnerable to contracting the virus that causes AIDS because they are away from their families for long periods of time and are presented with opportunities to engage in high-risk sexual behaviour."
The NWFP will stage training sessions to make the drivers aware of the risk of unprotected casual sex. Benedict Fultang, its acting Ethiopia national director, says: "We believe that the training sessions are a very effective strategy for slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS." He cites recent studies which suggest that African transport workers had "multiple sexual contacts without condoms,"