Business leaders unite against HIV/AIDS

The Sri Lanka Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS’ (SLBCH) second annual general meeting is to take place tomorrow at the Cinnamon Grand.

The meeting will be a gathering of both existing and potential members, to assess how best they may utilize some of the new resources that the SLBCH possesses.

The coalition can count amongst its member base multinationals, large local corporates and SMEs who have aligned themselves to bring together the Government, the business community and civil society in the national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The meeting will be chaired by Robert O Blake, the American Ambassador in Sri Lanka and the key note will be delivered by Dr. Anthony Pramaulatana.

Dr. Pramualratana is the executive director of the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS. His foundation works with Thailand’s ministry of labor and is responsible for addressing over 4000 companies in Thailand on HIV/AIDS awareness, totaling more than 300,000 employees.

The coalition plans to work with its existing partners to make sure that by year end 2008, each of the member organizations will have an HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy in place. The SLBCH has developed its own Workplace Policy which will tailor to satisfy the requirements of each member that has not already developed its own policy.

The coalition plans to identify vulnerable subgroups in areas that are often difficult to access and encourage businesses working in those areas to join the Coalition and thereby raise awareness through the shared learning and skills of the existing members.

The second half of the meeting will feature an introduction to the resource pool of trainers that some of the member organizations possess and would like to make available on request to other members for the purpose of educating staff on HIV/ AIDS awareness.

Standard Chartered Bank, John Keels Holding, ILO and the Labor Ministry have HIV/AIDS trainers who would be able to educate an organization’s staff on HIV/AIDS awareness as per the requirements of each individual organisation, exploring ways in which they may be able to implement a workplace policy.

The policy would provide a framework for action to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, avoid stigma towards those living with the disease and manage its impact.

“There have been many individual efforts made by businesses in response to the epidemic, but this is not sufficient. Partnering the national response to HIV/AIDS needs to be an intrinsic component of the way in which every organization operates.

Isolated centers of expertise, resources and material are available within the business sector, but there is a lack of engagement of corporates and access to existing resources and best practices.

It is our hope that the Business Coalition will fill this gap” said Clive Haswell, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank and Chairman of the SLBCH.