CARE's HIV awareness campaign in Ctg

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS has resulted in a grave situation all over the world.

According to WHO's most recent projection, South and South-East Asia will be the region most affected in the next few years, since the infection is spreading more rapidly here than other parts of the world.

In a developing country like Bangladesh where there are poverty, discrimination, sexual inequality, inadequate health and social service, rapid urbanisation and a large migrant labour force, which is prone to environmental disasters and surrounded by growing regional HIV/ AIDS epidemic, a potentially serious development crisis will follow if the HIV epidemic is permitted to go unchecked.

An international development organisation named CARE-Bangladesh has come forward with a HIV/AIDS prevention project called SHAKTI (Stopping HIV/ AIDS through Knowledge and Training Initiatives).

The goal of the project is to increase adoption of sustainable safer behaviour among the high risk people in order to reduce transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Its purpose is to implement and promote effective HIV/AIDS interventions to sustain safer behaviour among selected population, Sex Workers (SWs), Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), Transgender (Hijra), males who have sex with males, transport workers, HIV positive and others.

The port city of Chittagong is a centre of a large migrant labour force. Hundreds of thousands of people work here as port workers, transport workers and ghat (terminal) workers.

CARE-Bangladesh has identified these workers as a vulnerable population. This is because many of these workers often practice high-risk behaviours and therefore are at risk to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Generally, they do not seek examination or treatment for these diseases, and constitute a great risk of spreading HIV into the population at large. CARE-Bangladesh aims at restoring the dignity of the worker community, to help them understand HIV and how to protect themselves against it and to work with them to advance their own rights. The project aims to reach thousands of truck drivers, their helpers, dock-workers and ghat workers.

With this aim in view CARE-Bangladesh has established some Drop-in-Centres (DICs) in Chittagong. These are considered to be safe places to take rest for sometime, seek referral services to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and other ailments. DIC is the place where workers come to meet with their friends, to take rest, to play indoor games. This place is also used as a venue for group education session and a centre for management of STDs and other common diseases. There is a full-time physician in the DIC of the port area who regularly advises to the port workers. The DIC is situated in the dock workers union office. No rent is taken from the CARE authorities and the union leaders play an active role in combating the menace. HIV prevalence has been found to be nil among the port workers here.

Another DIC provides free services to the needy people in the transport workers union office here. The programme is being conducted through partnership with the port and transport workers associations with an objective to make it more acceptable to the community members. Dock labour union and transport workers union are the implementing agencies. Trained peer Out Reach workers work on six days a week in the Majhi ghat area and the truck terminal area in the port city to educate other fellow workers about safer sex practices. They refer the STD patients to the clinic to have treatment and sell condom among the workers. They are mainly responsible to provide information to the workers and refer them to the clinic of the DIC. They also demonstrate the proper use of condom in the field.

So far it has produced positive results, said Abul Kashem, general secretary (GS) of the Chattagram Jatyio Dock Sramik League. Hundreds of workers are being benefitted by this programme, he added.