How South African Businesses are Rising to the Challenge of HIV and AIDS

As well as having a devastating impact on individuals, HIV and AIDS are also having an increasingly negative economic impact on many African businesses and organisations. However, more and more businesses are waking up to huge benefits that well-implemented HIV/AIDS workplace support programs have to offer. These programmes institute policies and procedures that prevent infected employees from discrimination from colleagues, as well as offering free HIV testing to their workforce in an attempt to diagnose and manage the disease at an early stage. This in turn helps employees stay healthy, take control of their illness and encourages the entire workforce to work together to support affected colleagues and work together collaboratively to prevent the illness having a negative impact on the company as a whole.

Anglo American leads the way

One of the earliest organisations to adopt such a proactive approach was Anglo American, one of the world’s largest mining companies. They recognized the heavy toll that HIV was having on its 100,000 strong South African workforce and in 2002 introduced a comprehensive and wide ranging programme in the workplace in order to ensure early diagnosis and work with affected employees to better manage their condition. In doing this, they’ve had a positive impact on not just their employees, but the wider community. They offer counselling to affected staff members as well as awareness raising and prevention campaigns in the wider area to help safeguard their staff and families. They also offer free medical treatment to their employees and their dependants, including free nutritional supplements and anti retroviral drugs. By paying for their staff to have this treatment, Anglo American are improving their overall productivity. It makes great business- as well as social- sense. In 2012 they tested and counselled approximately 95,000 employees and contractors in South Africa, many of whom will go on to raise awareness in the wider community and pass on key messages about early diagnosis and treatment.

Community outreach and support

Another company who are leading the way in supporting personnel with HIV and AIDS are Mercedes-Benz South Africa. However, they’re also taking one step further than many other employers by also reaching out to the wider community: not just dependents of their employees. MBSA support and fund several projects that offer a lifeline to local people, such as the Sange Child and Youth Care Centre in Mdantsan. It was founded in 2010 to provide welfare and care to children in need of protection, including young people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. MBSA have strong ties to the Mdantsane region as a large portion of their labour force live and work there. MBSA also run the Siyakhana Health Trust in partnership with the Border-Kei Chamber of Business and a German development agency. This project provides 30 other small and medium sized companies in the Eastern Cape with HIV/AIDS awareness training, counselling, testing and care.

The SA Business Coalition on HIV/Aids

Both of these companies are members of Sabcoha, the South African Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, along with other major employers such as Afrox, Volkswagen of South Africa, Unilever and Toyota SA. With a membership base of over 40 corporations, large multinationals and smaller businesses, this vocal and influential coalition is effecting real change in SA by lobbying the government, running research projects and supporting businesses in setting up their own HIV and AIDS workplace testing and support programmes. Sabcoha have also put together a risk reducing training programme for very small businesses and new start ups called ‘BizAIDS’: a toolkit of guidelines and practical steps they can take in order to reduce the risk of infection among their staff.

When all is said and done, the epidemic is having a significant and severe effect on businesses and profitability across the continent, as well as fracturing communities and damaging the feeling of well-being and security that’s essential for a healthy economy. By addressing the illness at a basic, supportive level- as well as sharing best practice- South African businesses are taking care of their moral responsibility to care for their staff members as well as supporting their bottom line: something that’s vital in ensuring they can continue to provide valuable employment opportunities.

World AIDS Day: The Truth About Living and Loving With AIDS

By Charli Penn

Back in 1995, South Bronx-born music promoter Maria Davis was on top of the world -- young, beautiful, happy, and getting her first real taste of success. Her weekly “MAD Wednesdays” hip-hop showcase was a hot industry event, and as its host she even scored a guest spot on Jay-Z’s debut album “Reasonable Doubt.”

But then came the letter that sent her entire world crashing down. When she was forced to take a blood test for a life insurance policy, Davis learned she was HIV positive, and had contracted the virus from her fiance. Three years later, she was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS.

That was 14 years ago. Today, despite the odds, Davis is not only alive and well but also on a mission: She is a Making AIDS History Ambassador, and together with the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), she’s spent the last 18 years of her life fighting to stay alive and to help spread awareness within her community and raise money to support research for a cure.

  We know all about her public battles, but when we sat down with Davis we asked her how living with AIDS has affected her private life. She opened up about her desire to find a soul mate and the hurdles the disease has created along her path to true love.



How many friends have you lost along the way because of HIV/AIDS?
MARIA DAVIS: At least 20. It’s just always a reality check for me. [But] nobody can write you off. I lost a friend recently, and when I got to the funeral, I saw this young lady, and she just started crying and wailing. Her good friend looked at her and said, “What the heck is wrong with you?” I asked her, too. She said to me, “They told me you were dead.” I feel good because I hear those stories all the time. People are always telling me that they heard I passed away, but I haven’t. I guess people just assume that I’ve died by now. I’m thinking, what is wrong with these people? Have hope. I do.

Have you dated a lot since your diagnosis? What’s dating been like for you?
DAVIS: It’s been very fearful. But I love love. Tyler Perry is a big inspiration. I’m always watching his movies and the relationship dynamics that he puts in them. They’re all about a woman being hurt and finding love, and I’m crying and thinking to myself, Man, I want to be in love too. I’m not having a relationship with anybody unless I know their status. You can be re-infected. Another part of it is the person I’m sleeping with could have a different strain of the virus than I do. So whereas your strain is manageable, you could get another strain and it could take you out of here. The only way you can know for sure is to go and get tested together. That’s for anyone, in any kind of relationship. Whether you’re jumping the broom, just dating, whatever – before you sleep with someone, you should know him or her in and out. You have husbands and wives who have given each other HIV.

Is making your status known right away most important to you when you’re dating someone new?
DAVIS: Absolutely! I’m a spokesperson. The only way you really don’t know I have HIV is if you haven’t read or seen anything about me. But I make it clear that I am living with AIDS. Actually, when I’m in a relationship, I’m more afraid of an individual than they are of me, trust me. They know what I have coming into the relationship, but I don’t know what they have. Are you telling the truth? Are you being honest? Are you telling me one thing, but it could be another thing? If so, then my life is in jeopardy all over again.

Do you feel it’s been harder to find love because of your diagnosis or your fears?
DAVIS: Let’s be for real: It’s because of my diagnosis. I’ve had guys tell me I’m fine, or they try to talk to me. Then when I tell them that I’m living with AIDS they kind of back off. I do have one friend I’ve been in and out of a relationship with. But his head isn’t ready yet.

Do you encourage young women to use protection or hold off on sex until marriage instead?
DAVIS: All of that. I’ve given out thousands and thousands and thousands of condoms. But what does a condom mean if a person doesn’t care about himself or herself? My goal is for the young men and women to figure it out mentally. It’s an inner thing, not an outer thing. A condom is an outer thing, that’s a barrier. The inner barrier gives more power than the outer. If they can just stop for one second and say to themselves, "Hey, this is not worth it"... Condoms can break, but who are you having sex with? Are they worthy of you? Do they deserve your time? You are a pearl. You are a gift from God. You can’t throw your gifts away to people who are not deserving of you. Everybody has issues. He could be a great person, but are his intentions great? He might not have found his greatness yet, but you have to find your greatness in you. Once you find it, other people see that greatness, and they’re not going to come to you with crap.

What advice would you offer to women who are recently diagnosed and feel their chances at finding true love are over?
DAVIS: I’m going to be honest. Of course your dating life is going to change. Accept it. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t find love, or you won’t find anyone. Just accept the changes that come with any illness. Once you accept and embrace that change, you open yourself up for so many other things. If you’re in denial and you try to go against it, then you get locked into bad behaviors. Then you’re trying to find yourself within people that don’t understand you, because you don’t understand yourself. Will I ever be in a relationship again? I pray so, and I would love to. But if it never happens again, that’s okay too. A relationship with a man doesn’t identify who I am. I’m still lovable.

The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) is one of the world’s leading nonprofits dedicated to AIDS research and ending the AIDS epidemic. Since 1985, amfAR has invested more than $340 million in its programs and helped catalyze the search for a cure for HIV/AIDS. To get more facts about how to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS your community, visit the Making Aids History official site or amfAR’s website now.