Abidjan-Lagos corridor: The Traveller (15 February 2007)

Hi and welcome to THE TRAVELLER, the news bulletin of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Organisation produced in association with Irin Radio Corridor, aired on your favourite radio station. THE TRAVELLER guides you on the road from Abidjan to Lagos, and shows you all the obstacles. So, keep rolling.

TRUCKERS’CORNER
COTE D’IVOIRE
Getting ready for ALCO-Global Fund partnership
Abidjan: The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Organisation (ALCO) organised a consultation meeting in Abidjan from Monday 12 to Tuesday 13 February 2007, to plan for the continuation of HIV AIDS prevention and care and support activities along the corridor. At the meeting were the inter state advisory council, the country coordinating mechanisms of the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, (CCMs) of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

“We’re moving into ALCO 2 that is to implement the Global Fund project. And it is a continuation of the first project that we have completed,” Pr Sekyi Awuku Amoa vice chairman of the Corridor Project told The Traveller. According to Pr Amoa, the meeting is just to make sure ALCO targets more the commercial sex workers and the other high risk groups along the border, and also to make sure that ALCO is “able to address the environmental issues particularly the issue of stigma and discrimination.”

After exchange of ideas, the parties came up with a document that ALCO is going to submit to the Global Fund, for a 5 year funding of 45 million dollars. According to Stanislas Wannou of CCM Benin, only performance matters to the Global Fund. “The Global Fund is a funding structure where management depends on results. So, people who are ill are the targets, those who need care,” Mr. Wannou declared. “As a priority, the grants mobilized must go first and foremost to the ill, to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Otherwise, we won’t reach our objectives,” he added.

For Dr Aminu Mai of CCM Nigeria, the Global Fund will disburse its money as long as the assigned objectives are reached. “After two years, we need to look at the performance of the grant, and convince Global Fund to continue to fund the project for the remaining three years,” he said. “This consultation will really give us the direction to go, to get the grant upon running across the corridor completely,” he noted.

ALCO is likely to come up with good results to satisfy the demands of the Global Fund, Mr. Wannou said. “It’s the first time that a sub-regional proposal is approved of by the Global Fund. The Corridor proposal was accepted among ten others”, Mr Wannou said. And according to him, an evaluation made by The Google Observer, an independent structure working with the Global Fund, has shown that the particularity of the proposal is the support from all CCMs.

The ALCO-Global Fund partnership will start in July 2007, at the end of the project that binds the organisation to the World Bank. For Dr Siélié Silué of the World Bank, his institution would not withdraw totally from the Corridor project “The World Bank is ready to accompany the process. In accordance with the executive committee and the different ministers, how the Bank can intervene,” Dr Silué said. According to him, the Global Fund will give many resources but it was decided that the World Bank would also bring a contribution to be determined in the future. “I believe the Bank will be around in order to fight HIV/AIDS together,” Dr Silué underlined.

In fact the struggle must go on. According to Professor Therese Yoman of CCM Côte d’Ivoire, Aids prevention activities already implemented along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor must continue because HIV infection is still a taboo subject in most communities. “Even if we talk about it very often, HIV/AIDS is a bit embarrassing. So, people don’t speak about it or seek for care as they should,” Pr Yoman explained.

For her, information campaigns are very developed but people are still very timid, that’s why the effort must be kept up. “There are equipment, medicines, and condoms. Sometimes there is shortage, but with this grant, those difficulties will be easily overcome,” Pr Yoman said.

TOGO
Moriah Trust attempts to protect young people on Valentine’s Day.
Kodjoviakopé: Moriah Trust, the agency in charge of distributing condoms along the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor visited Kodjoviakopé beach in the afternoon of Wednesday 14^th of February, Valentine’s Day, Lovers’ Day. The couples found there were informed about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and were shown how to wear a condom properly.

This young girl is ready to try the female condom with her Valentine. “I’ve just learned how to put on a female condom. I’ve never seen it before, and I didn’t know about it,” she said. “Today, I’ve got the opportunity to be shown it, I’ve tried it and it is easy to wear though it looks complicated. Tonight, I’ll try it to see what it feels like,” she added.

This other young girl however, would rather go for the male condom. “I knew about female condom but I didn’t know how to wear it. So I’ve tried today but I prefer the male condom,” she said.

The Valentines were informed about the risks of HIV infection and they tried to wear condoms properly. So Moriah Trust reached its objective, Marthe Mensah its representative in Kodjoviakopé said. “People have also accepted to be shown how to wear a condom properly, tried it themselves. They’ve done it well,” she said.

According to Mrs. Mensah, there were a lot of couples on the beach and they asked many questions related to HIV/AIDS. “They have revealed much about their life as a couple, and asked a lot of questions related to HIV/AIDS. We’ve tried to answer their questions,” she said.

BENIN
ROLFE assists women at the border
Hilla Condji: The Network of NGOs for Feminine Leadership (ROLFE) donated basins, plates and other utensils to women on Saturday 10^th of February 2007 at Hilla Condji, the Beninois village bordering Togo. It gave women traders and porters loans with no interest, repayable in five months. Mrs. Pascaline Talon of ROLFE told The Traveller why they turned their words into action.

“These women at Hilla Condji have very weak revenues. That’s why they are very exposed to HIV/AIDS,” she said. After two years of information, no need continuing to inform the person “when you know the very reason why they indulge in risky behaviours,” she added.

ROLFE that is an ALCO partner attempts to help women in the border area take care of themselves, and avoid risks of HIV infection. According to Mrs. Talon, women at Hilla Condji themselves say they are vulnerable to HIV infection because they are poor. “Women at Hilla Condji admit that they give in to some risky practices because they have weak revenues. A little money, one bank note is enough to make them lose control and get involved in unprotected sex,” she said.

REPAIRS AND CONSTRUCTION
GHANA
Rehabilitation still underway on the Accra-Takoradi road

Egyaa: Work gangs and their equipment are working at Egyaa near Anomabu, on the last stretch of the 240-kilometre road linking Accra and the Harbour city of Takoradi. The dry season is helping to expedite work, but it is not all drivers are happy. This is because they suffer more dust especially at sections where the road has been diverted. The contractors sometimes sprinkle water to check the dust, but dear motorists, be careful of poor visibility. Before the rehabilitation started, it took more than four hours to travel the potholed infested road from Accra to Takoradi. But now some drivers boast they are covering the distance in less than three hours. But dear drivers, take care! The road is notorious for speed- related accidents.

EXPERT’S POINT OF VIEW
NEWS FROM OUTSIDE THE CORRIDOR
To look at pictures and send emails home to protect oneself from HIV/AIDS.

Kenya: Journalists are also very exposed to HIV infection. To report on events happening around the world, they travel very often alone without their usual partner, to places where they are not well known. So, they are tempted to engage in sex with people they’ve just met, with the risk of contracting the Aids virus.

At the World Social Forum held last month in Nairobi, Lanre Arogundade, a journalist who came from Lagos Nigeria told the Traveller that he managed to cope for all these years not to yield to temptations, developing his own coping mechanisms. “I usually travel with my family photographs, photographs of my wife and my daughters, and from time to time I look at them,” Mr. Arogundade said. He also said that he resorts to modern communication like mobile telephony or the Internet to stay in touch with his family. “Often you keep calling each other, and occasionally where you have access to the Internet, you send email.”

For the Liberian journalist Lyndon Ponnie, HIV/AIDS is itself a sufficient factor of dissuasion to not engage in unprotected sex. “Sometimes, you fall prey to some instincts but HIV/AIDS has given people a new direction and a new thinking,” he said. “So even if we’re so weak in mind, the presence of HIV/AIDS is a clear signal that we should strain ourselves, hold on to our feelings until we return, to our homes,” he added.

It’s true that it is difficult leaving one’s family, going to another country and meeting other people for there are lots of temptations involved. Mr. Arogundade, a journalist who cares for his life and career, launched this appeal to others. “When look back to the fact that your family is at home, you wouldn’t be happy if your wife were cheating on you, you moderate yourself,” he underlined. “Try to have fun, but without necessarily going too far,” he advised.

That’s all for today’s THE TRAVELLER. Join us again next week, but for now, travel safely, and protect yourself. The life you save is your own and that of a loved one