Drivers help anti-AIDS drives

JAKARTA (JP): Truck drivers could help contribute their ideas to combat AIDS by painting slogans on their trucks to remind themselves and others of the deadly virus, local AIDS Day organizers said recently.

This has been going on since Nov. 16 in Bekasi as part of the International AIDS Day (Dec. 1) activities. They said this activity would run until Dec. 13.

A committee spokesman said truck drivers, especially those who traveled long distances through several towns, were prone to contracting HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) which causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

"A recent survey shows many truck drivers traveling long- distance routes often have high-risk sex with prostitutes offering their services in dimly lit street food stalls which double as illegal brothels. Such stalls can be found in abundance along highways on the North Jakarta coast," one of the organizers said.

This program is being sponsored by the Public Health Development Foundation (YPKM) in cooperation with the National Family Program Coordinating Agency (BKKBN), Levi Strauss & Co, several non-government organizations, plus truck drivers and their employers.(bas)