Field Placement: Population Council Brazil
Location: Campinas, SP, Brazil (Other locations Available)
Preceptor: Sherri Lippman, MPH, Michigan Fellow and Juan Diaz
Student Name: Jill López
Year: 2002

Targeting Truck Drivers for STI/HIV/AIDS Prevention, Testing and Treatment at Brazil's Southern Border and Improving the quality of STI/HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment in commercial sex workers at the Brazil/Bolivia frontier in Corumbá

The Population Council is an international, nonprofit institution that conducts research in Biomedical Research and Product Development, Population and Social Policy, and Reproductive Health and Family Planning. Their mission is "to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources." 1

In addition to the two stateside offices in New York and Washington, DC, there are five regional offices and 18 country offices located throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The Population Council Brazil falls under the arm of International Programs Division and focuses on research pertaining to Expanding Contraceptive Choice, Preventing HIV/AIDS Transmission, and Disseminating Information. They are located in Campinas, SP, Brazil.

During the summer of 2002, I worked on the following two projects: Targeting Truck Drivers for STI/HIV/AIDS Prevention, Testing and Treatment at Brazil's Southern Border and Improving the quality of STI/HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment in commercial sex workers at the Brazil/Bolivia frontier in Corumbá. My activities with regard to these two projects, include the following: edit proposal; prepare for Internal Review Boards at The Population Council HQ and Brazilian Ministry of Health; prepare informed consents in Portuguese and Spanish; and prepare laboratory and study protocols. In addition to these activities, I would also conduct and analyze formative research and prepare formative research instruments on the Truck Driver study.

During my internship, I reviewed the Truck Driver proposal for concordance with Internal Review Board (IRB) requirements and general edits. The Truck Driver formative research consisted of writing informed consents for truck drivers and sex workers. I also created the focus group guide for sex workers, and in-depth interview guides for both truckers and sex workers. I also created a mapping exercise to document routes driven by truck drivers. This included creating a regional map and instruction sheets. Most of these documents were written in both Portuguese and Spanish. During formative research data collection, I participated in four focus group discussions with Brazilian and Foreign (Spanish-speaking) truck drivers, and one groups of female commercial sex workers. I also participated in five in-depth interviews with 3 foreign truck drivers, 1 Brazilian, and 1 Brazilian shop owner. I also completed a qualitative analysis of the mapping exercise and wrote a summary of the process used to analyze the maps, including suggestions for information distribution sites. I also began performing a qualitative analysis of the focus group and IDI transcripts by identifying themes within the documents. I also drafted the quantitative baseline survey for the Truck Driver study.

With regard to the Sex Worker project proposal, I wrote a few paragraphs on collaborative agencies, and the informed consent based on IRB requirements. My work on the formative research for this project was limited to writing the informed consents for both professional sex workers and non-professional sex workers.

I also performed a literature review of migratory/mobile populations and HIV/AIDS initiatives in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America and created a summary table. This was used in the final report of the HIV/AIDS Brazilian Borders Assessment Project, which led to the creation of both the Truck Driver and Sex Worker projects.

1. The Population Council. (2002). About the Council. Retrieved September 09, 2002, from http://www.popcouncil.org/about/about.html.

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