Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - December 30, 2004
James Knight and Katrina Manson

An enormous sound system pumped out a thunderous mix of home-grown hip hop, as dancers, artists and health experts rallied onlookers in the town, a motley collection of hawkers, money changers, transient laborers and sex workers.

The Caravan's mission was to deliver sex education through party-time -- not preaching -- to the poor and turbulent region of West Africa, where HIV/AIDS infection rates are on the rise.

During its 19-stop odyssey through Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast, the noisy, colorful parade brought live acts, performances, sketches and testimonials to those most at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS along the coastal corridor.

"This route has been targeted because the HIV/AIDS virus recognizes no national boundaries," said Robert Ahomka Lindsay, president of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, which helped sponsor the month-long Love Life Caravan.

Sub-Saharan Africa, with just over 10 percent of the world's population, is home to more than 60 percent of all HIV positive people. An estimated 25.4 million people in Africa live with HIV.

This year 2.3 million Africans have died of AIDS and 3.1 million have been infected in the past 12 months.

More than 12 million children have been orphaned by AIDS and African governments have often been accused of doing too little to combat it.

CROSSROAD SEX

Africa's highly mobile labor force is a big factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS. About 14 million people live and work along the 620 miles ribbon of tarmac that stretches from Lagos in Nigeria to Abidjan in Ivory Coast.

"Travellers, transport and migrant workers are at risk, due to being away from home and the presence of sex workers operating along the corridor," said Justin Koffi, director of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Project which supports the Love Life Caravan financially.

Prostitutes congregate at established crossroads and along cross-border routes, assured of custom from a steady stream of long-distance truck drivers and migrant workers.

Instances of HIV are four times higher than average at intersections and while it can take about 24 hours to drive from Lagos to Abidjan, roadblocks, customs checks and mechanical problems mean truck drivers can spend weeks on the road.

While infection rates in west and central Africa are generally lower than in some southern African countries -- ranging from 13.5 percent in Central African Republic to below two percent in Senegal -- in Benin along the coastal corridor more than 60 percent of sex workers are infected, the U.N. says.

"The Lagos-Abidjan road is very long and there's no doubt that drivers get lonely," said Pepin Kodiane, a 34-year-old truck driver who is married and has a one-year-old daughter -- and a girlfriend.

"Drivers don't usually use condoms, it's not in their habits ... I know colleagues who've died of a disease. But I can't say for sure if it's AIDS as they hadn't been tested," he said.

The Love Life Caravan aims to reach out to the grassroots in a way that billboards advertising condoms cannot. Staffed by health workers and local artists it encourages local participation and the organizers said their target reach was 50 million people along the route.

The Caravan secured cross-border backing at high levels in addition to the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Project, a four-year initiative costing $16.6 million funded by the World Bank.

Big business is also paying more than lip service to the problem. Coca-Cola is the continent's major commercial employer, with a huge distribution and franchise network.

Its truck drivers, as vulnerable as any others to temptation, are at risk from the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the stigma surrounding the disease prevents those affected from talking about it.

INFORMAL INDUSTRY

In each of the stopovers, local panels selected themes for discussion, including abstinence, use of condoms, faithfulness, voluntary counselling and testing, stigma and discrimination.

Idrissa Tiama, head of an organization called Migrate Without AIDS said the hard task is getting the message across to informal sex workers living along the route.

"By far the biggest chunk of sex workers are the ones in the population; the ones you can't count. They're much harder to target as you can't be sure they're sex workers just by looking at them," Tiama said.

Talking about AIDS is also largely taboo in west Africa and those who go public risk being snubbed by their families.

"The Love Life Caravan has brought awareness to people along the route. But now we have to continue the message on the ground to make sure it gets across," said 27-year-old Mariame Kourouma, who braided hair along the coastal corridor.

"AIDS isn't a very common talking point among the women who work here, but we do sometimes broach it," she said.

She said another hairdresser had recently gone to see her and other women, saying she thought her boyfriend might be infected.

"We said she should go and get a test herself because she's spent such a long time with him," she said.

Some 500 miles further north in the town of Koudougou in Burkina Faso, Koro Ouedraogo, 31, said she lost her husband to AIDS after he went to find work in Ivory Coast.

"The last time he came to see me, he was sick. He had to go back to earn a living. I heard from one of his friends that he died in Ivory Coast," she said.

She had not decided whether to go for a test. She feared she would be ostracized if she is positive.

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