Coal boom raises HIV threat in Mozi

It is almost 4pm and two young women are already sitting outside the Night Clinic in Moatize, a small town in Mozambique’s northern Tete province, near one of the largest coal mines in the southern hemisphere, owned by Brazilian firm Vale. The national 123 road cuts through the town, and the clinic lies just off it – intentionally located to bring its services as close as possible to its target patients: miners, truck drivers and sex workers.

“When the big mining companies were established here, people started coming from neighbouring countries: Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. Tete became a window of hope, but when people don’t find the jobs they hoped to find, many of them end up involved in prostitution or criminality,” said Oswaldo Inacio Jossiteala, a programme officer at the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH).

Every mining boom brings the fear of a rising HIV infection rate, particularly in a country like Mozambique, where the estimated prevalence is already 11.3%.

Although the incidence of infection in Tete has remained stable at 7%, officials are concerned that this could be changing. In an interview with Radio Mozambique, Domingos Viola, co-ordinator of the provincial working group for the fight against HIV/Aids, said 35,000 cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were registered in the area last year, 10,000 of them in Moatize, at the centre of the coal boom, which has only 40,000 residents.

The recently opened Night Clinic is part of a project called the improved sexual and reproductive health and rights services for most at risk populations (Marp) in Tete, set up with the goal of reducing STIs and HIV in Tete and Moatize.

Most of the patients are between 16 and 35 years old, and 30 to 35 receive medical attention every evening. Jossiteala said: “The target group are often stigmatised when they go to ordinary clinics – we believe they find it easier to come here, and that the new clinic will attract more patients.”

The project is a collaboration between Mozambican health authorities, the ICRH, USAid, and the Flemish International Co-operation Agency. Vale has contributed $200,000 (£130,000) for the infrastructure, and the local health authority is paying for staff and medicines.

The Night Clinic has activists working in local communities, at truck stops and guesthouses, trying to convince target groups to make use of the services. They also lobby for the rights of sex workers in the province.

“If a sex worker is beaten by a customer, or if a customer doesn’t pay, the women have the right to take the case to court. But since most of them are here illegally, that is very difficult. The women are afraid the authorities will turn against them, but now we see small changes in such attitudes.”

Last year, the media reported cases of policemen abusing foreign sex workers in Tete and soliciting bribes from them, but Jossiteala said that since clinic staff began educating sex workers about their rights, this has been changing.

As mining companies flourish in the province, residents are growing increasingly unhappy with the inadequate contribution of the firms to the wellbeing of surrounding communities. Most people working in the mines are men under 40, many of them living alone. Americo Conceicao, acting permanent secretary of Tete province, has urged the companies to do more.

“They have internal HIV-programmes, but how their employees act affects the whole community, not just the mining company. They need to work together with health authorities concerning these issues,” he said.

Carla Mosse, the provincial director of health in Tete, hopes that the rise in the incidence of STIs and HIV will lead mining companies to step up and play a bigger role.

“We are too disorganised. We need to elaborate a provincial plan for social responsibility where we, together with the companies, have decided what they will contribute each year. Now, if we need something we send a letter asking for help, and the answer is always, ‘No, no, no’.”

Source:

Guardian