'Voices from the Border' is a four minute audio slideshow which explores the complex issues around HIV/AIDS transmission in Chirundu, a small settlement along the Zambezi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a key transit point on the trucking route from South Africa through to East Africa and it is well known as key HIV/AIDS transmission 'hotspot'.
Every day hundreds of trucks try to pass through this border creating huge congestion. Many truck drivers are forced to spend days and sometimes even weeks waiting for customs clearance and every night more than 500 trucks are parked in the customs yard and along the road leading out of town. There are about 4,000 people living in Chirundu, and as part of this population there are more than 350 sex workers who provide services to truck drivers and others.
This body of work was made with the support of UK's Department for International Development (DFID) which is active in supporting a regional initiative called the 'One Stop Border Post' the first of which is in the process of being established in Chirundu.
The main aim of this if to help facilitate trade and economic development by speeding up transit time at borders. The other aim is to improve health and combat HIV and AIDS by reducing the amount of time truck drivers are forced to stay away from their families and wait, and along side this working to improve the health of border sex workers, truckers and the local community.
Guardian.co.uk: Wednesday 18 February 2009 Photographs by Gideon Mendel / Soundtrack edited by Iain Chambers (
Photographer Gideon Mendel has undertaken numerous commissions and projects with Positive Lives)
Gideon Mendel on Guardian Unlimited
Posts
