IOM and Kenya's National AIDS Control Council are today opening a
free health care clinic to assist vulnerable and often
hard-to-reach mobile populations on the busy Kenyan-Ugandan border.

The health centre, which is located in the heart of a trailer
park in the town of Busia, in Kenya's Western province, will
address the health needs of mobile populations, including the
provision of free tuberculosis, malaria and HIV treatment. Nurses
will be available 24 hours a day to offer free and confidential HIV
counseling.

"This is just a beginning," says Alloys Orago, Director of the
National AIDS Control Council. "Working with IOM and the Kenya
National AIDS/STI Control Programme, we aim to pepper the entire
western and northern transport corridors with free health care
clinics specifically designed for hard-to-reach populations."

These include truck drivers, civil servants and female sex
workers who, due to their deprived social and economic environment,
are particularly prone to engaging in risky sex and, therefore,
vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

News of the opening of the Busia Wellness Centre has already
triggered a cross border meeting between Kenyan and Ugandan
Government officials who met to discuss ways to offer a common
health care package for mobile populations on both sides of the
border.

"We see the Busia Wellness Centre as a first step," says Greg
Irving, IOM Health Programme Officer. "We now need to address
structural issues such as condom availability and empowering female
sex workers to negotiate safer sex. We also need to address
behavioral issues such as overcoming misconceptions surrounding
HIV. Strengthened partnerships, accountability, coordination and
financial commitment will ultimately prevent new HIV
infections."

This initiative is funded by the Joint UN Programme of Support
on AIDS (JUPSA).

For more information, please call:

Celeste Hibbert

IOM Nairobi

Tel: +254 7 3197 4026

E-mail: "mailto:chibbert@iom.int" target="" title=
"">chibbert@iom.int