Wellness care for long-haul truckers

It’s never been easy to stay fit or healthy on the long haul, but it’s no longer possible to ignore the impact on truckers’ health. Their working environments and work-related stressors make health protection and promotion interventions invaluable for these long-distance drivers.Understanding the need to sustain the human capital within the transport sector, the Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG), in relation with its core mandate, which focuses on trade facilitation, began a strategic initiative called the WBCG Wellness service.The project manager, Edward Shivute, explains that a network of roadside wellness centres across the country was established in collaboration with industry partners and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS). The Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union (NATAU) and the Ministry of Works and Transport (MoWT) also support the project.For the last decade, WBCG has run its HIV programme targeting Namibian transport workers and specifically long-distance truck drivers, who are perceived as ‘transporters of HIV’ along the corridors. The Group remains resolute in its pursuit of reducing the impact of HIV on this vital economic sector.This coincides with the Group’s vision to be the prime driver of self-sustaining HIV and AIDS and Employee Wellness Workplace programmes in the Namibian transport sector and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).“These clinics provide HIV/Aids and other primary healthcare services such as blood pressure and glucose testing, cholesterol and haemoglobin testing, as well as tuberculosis screening and condom distribution to mobile populations. “The clinics are conveniently located along our main transport corridors and border posts and offer the truckers the luxury of keeping an eye on their cargo while visiting the clinic,” Shivute says.He says the clinics are occasionally open at odd hours of the night to allow truckers to seek health services. An electronic health passport system links all the centres so that treatment information can ‘travel’ along with the truckers.According to Shivute, sex workers and communities living in border areas also make up part of the mobile population.Through the WBCG HIV cross-border initiative in partnership with the SADC secretariat, one of the target groups is female sex workers whose ages range between 15 and 39. According to the Namibia Population Based HIV Impact Assessment study conducted in 2018, women aged 15 to 24 have a far higher HIV incidence rate (0.99 percent) than same-aged young men (0.03 percent) in the country. This highlights the continued need for expanded primary HIV prevention in young women. This age group is considered one of the most vulnerable groups in our society.Through collaboration with the MoHSS and with support from the Global Fund through NANASO, WBCG has since January 2018 actively engaged in strategies to target out-of-school adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) with HIV prevention interventions. The ministries of health and social services, and education, arts and culture, as well as civil society organisations such as the WBCG, are jointly implementing Namibia’s AGYW campaign. The Global Fund, through Nanaso, supports the initiative while other stakeholders include Positive Vibes, regional AIDS coordinating committees and community leaders. *For more information, please contact Mr Edward Shivute, Wellness Service Project Manager, at +264 61 251669, send him an email at edward@wbcg.com.na or visit our website at www.wbcg.com.na

Wellness care for long-haul truckers

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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Wellness care for long-haul truckers

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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