Walvis Bay harbour gives HIV an international passport

When fishermen arrive in the port city of Walvis Bay in Namibia, flush with money after months at sea, they don't have to go far to spend it. The small town's harbour area is littered with discos and nightclubs catering to the foreign trawler men who sustain the entertainment and commercial sex industries.

Strategically located halfway down the coast of Namibia, with direct access to principal shipping routes, the deep-sea port of Walvis Bay is dominated by the fishing industry. Commercial fishing and fish processing is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the Namibian economy.

The Trans-Caprivi and Trans-Kalahari highways also link Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - countries with HIV infection rates that are among the world's highest - to Walvis Bay, which has an estimated HIV prevalence rate of between 25 percent and 30 percent, making fishermen and truck drivers particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

October is a quiet month in Walvis Bay: the government has declared it a 'no fishing' month - or 'downtime' as the locals call it - so that fish stocks can recover. Fewer vessels arrive in the harbour, and trucks do not pull up to the gates as frequently.

The Manica Group of companies, with its headquarters in Walvis Bay, takes advantage of the lull in business to conduct AIDS education among its local workers. The Walvis Bay Multi-Purpose Centre (MPC), a local community-based NGO, is often invited to discuss HIV testing. Bernhard Kamatoto, who is HIV-positive and the MPC's community mobiliser, spoke to a group of over 20 men about living positively with the virus.

Kamatoto received a lukewarm response, with most of the men only interested in the free condoms and the attractive female counsellor from the Multi-Purpose Centre. It was lunchtime in the deserted harbour, and the workers had just finished unloading cargo from a large vessel, so an hour-long discussion on HIV/AIDS was not uppermost in their minds.

Manica employee Erastus (last name withheld) told IRIN/PlusNews that although this was his first AIDS awareness meeting, he didn't need the information - it was the "sea-farers with all the money" who should be receiving these messages.

THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT

Just outside the harbour gates, the Mission to Seafarers building offers recreational facilities to up to 200 foreign fishermen a day. According to a staff member who asked not to be named, the mission hands out condoms "like sweeties", but because they usually came from countries with low prevalence, foreign fishermen were not properly informed about HIV/AIDS and not always receptive to practising safer sex.

According to a report by Namibia's Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) on the dynamics of HIV risk behaviour in Walvis Bay, trawler men were the bridge linking high- and low-risk regions of the world, potentially connecting Chinese housewives with commercial sex workers and her clients in Walvis Bay.

Having received no HIV/AIDS education prior to their arrival or during their stay in Namibia, most of these fishermen have low levels of HIV/AIDS knowledge, and local AIDS educators are unlikely to use their limited funds on foreign nationals or obtain permission to board international ships, the report said.

Local fishermen prefer to spend time at shebeens.

When the mission closes its doors in the evenings, the next stop for seafarers, who have spent months prohibited from drinking alcohol and with little to do, is the 'red-light district', a strip of clubs and 'back rooms' lining a street just a short walk from the harbour.

Club Lokolos, one of the more popular hangouts, is busy despite the fishing 'downtime'. As the dance floor slowly fills and the music gets louder, a group of Chinese men at a table in a quiet room in the club watch a young sex worker dancing suggestively with a Ukrainian trawler man. None of the men speak English, but according to a group of commercial sex-workers who are regulars at the club, language is not really a barrier and hand gestures provide enough communication. Negotiating condom use, however, was difficult, and they admitted it was easier to agree to not use condoms.

"The foreign fishermen simply tell them that HIV/AIDS is not a problem for them because they don't have HIV in their country," said Lisias Kashati, coordinator of the Social Marketing Association's Corridor of Hope project in the Erongo Region, one of Namibia's 13 administrative districts and where Walvis Bay is located.

Kashati told IRIN/PlusNews that as part of the Corridors of Hope project, which targets sex workers and truck drivers, he conducts regular workshops and has struck up a good relationship with many of the women. Sex workers were generally better informed about the pandemic, he said, as they were not as mobile and could be reached by prevention efforts, but they were still vulnerable to violence, and alcohol and drug abuse.

LOCAL FISHERMEN ALSO AT RISK

Although local fishermen have had much greater exposure to HIV education and awareness campaigns, they were still at risk, as the interventions were irregular and often inadequate, Kashati pointed out.

Distrust of vessel owners and management also caused Namibian trawler men to be wary of such initiatives, the IPPR report said. Local fishermen often have negative attitudes toward safe sex, despite being well informed about HIV/AIDS. Some are of the opinion that paid sex is unprotected sex, the report commented.

High levels of alcohol abuse in local communities, and their risky lifestyles, have contributed to high HIV prevalence rates among local fishermen, who are usually permanent residents of Walvis Bay. They tend to spend more time onshore than foreign fishermen, and prefer to visit some of the 400 shebeens (unlicensed bars) estimated to be operating in the local township of Kuisebmund.

MPC conducts regular shebeen outreach campaigns in the township. Doris, the Zimbabwean owner of the 'Why Not Pa-Centre Bar', had invited the NGO's Bernhard Kamatoto and another colleague to give a short talk on HIV/AIDS prevention but a banner advertising VCT services outside the pub was deterring many regulars.

Her clientele is mixed: locals, Angolans seeking work, truck drivers and the "big spenders" - local fishermen. "I like these guys [fishermen] because they don't have to wait for end of the month to spend money. As soon as the ship comes in, they are here at my place," she told IRIN/PlusNews.

Besides a few young girls and a group of boys playing pool, very few customers were coming in. "They don't want to hear about condoms when they are drinking," Doris said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I always advise everybody who comes in here to use condoms but, in a poor place like this, if a girl can find someone who will take care of her and he doesn't want to use a condom, what can you do?"

kn/he/oa