Truckers help out in AIDS campaign

BEKASI, West Java (JP): Watching trucks in a traffic jam is fun. Like pilots, drivers express their personalities on the vehicles they spend most of their lives in. Sexy women, eagles and cobras adorn trucks with statements often saying the drivers either miss their women, hope their mothers are praying for them, or both.

From now on, you may spot rather different pictures and words.

One could be a tiger saying "My loyalty is as fierce as my roar."

Another could be a picture of children and "I'm faithful to my family." (Aku setia pada keluarga). Another says, "Bring home money, Mas, not illness."

The new paintings are the fruit of a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) awareness campaign involving 300 truck drivers, their 300 assistants and 300 trucks which travel the North Java route.

The campaign to repaint the trucks was titled Pesona Bak Truk '96 (The Wonder of Trucks '96). It started Nov. 16 in Bekasi and ended Saturday.

It was arranged by the Public Health Development Foundation in cooperation with the National Family Planning Board.

The Levi Strauss company was one of the sponsors.

On Saturday the remaining few unpainted trucks were finished at the Rawa Pasung truck terminal in Kranji. This was followed by dang dut entertainment to thank the drivers, employers and everyone else involved.

Truck drivers, their assistants and residents danced joyfully in the mud and rain.

Truck drivers had been selected as a strategic group for spreading the messages. Organizers cited a study of truck drivers traveling the long-distance routes along the North Java coast. They often had high-risk sex with prostitutes at food stalls doubling as illegal brothels.

Most drivers agreed with the campaign. They suggested ideas for the drawings and slogans, after a careful approach by volunteers.

One of the drivers did look a bit regretful, however, about having lost his red and white "Marlboro" sign to a new "AIDS" picture.

Another driver and a truck assistant said separately they thought the activity was good, though they could not say whether it would change behavior.

"It's true, truck drivers stop anywhere and get a girl," the driver, Puri, said. "It's been like that for ages."

Pardi, an assistant, said, "Maybe the message will remind them of the AIDS danger...Having girls is the only entertainment on the road," he added.

Baby Jim Aditya, the coordinator of the event, hoped the messages would reach anyone who saw the trucks.

One thing is definite, she said -- "None of the drivers have the slightest fear of AIDS yet".

She said a driver told her, "Look at me. Try (driving) my truck, it's heavy. I am too strong (to get AIDS)".

Myths and superstitions about sexual behavior abound among drivers, she said.

They say don't have sex in broad daylight; no sex with weak looking women; have sex with the whore who gave you syphilis to cure it; a woman's eyes tell if she is sick. And don't have sex at the lokalisasi (official rehabilitation center for prostitutes) -- professional prostitutes are really unsafe.

Most do not like condoms, and some did not know what condoms were. Their wives were even more ignorant, Baby said. "There's no TV, no electricity here," she said.

Drivers, she said, are just like everyone else.

"They all deny they can get the virus." (anr)