Republic, Scotia Bank, NAMILCO, Beharry Group lauded for workplace campaign

The 44-member Guyana Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBCHA) continues to make a noteworthy private sector contribution to the national effort to combat the scourge of HIV/AIDS, garnering a total of US$24,000 in cash and other contributions since October 2009, according to information released recently by its Orange Walk, Bourda Secretariat.

A document released by the Secretariat ahead of the GBCHA’s July 29 Second Annual General Meeting stated that apart from its fund-raising pursuits, the Coalition’s testing site set up at its Secretariat had been the second most productive site across the country reaching more than 800 individuals with HIV prevention information and testing more than 1,600 persons since December 2009.  Additionally, the GBCHA says that since October last year, 49 persons representing its member companies have benefitted from peer educator training and refresher training programmes.

At its fourth Annual Awards for Business Excellence held in June this year the Coalition cited two commercial banks, among its members for their contribution to the national response to HIV and AIDS in Guyana over the past year. It named Republic Bank (Guyana) Ltd as the winner of its 2010 Business Award in the Workplace Programme category and Scotia Bank as the winner in the Community Investment category. The third winner in the GBCHA’s list of awards for Business Excellence was the National Milling Company (NAMILCO) which was named by the coalition as its outstanding performer in the Peer Educator category.

The GBCHA says in its June 2010 second quarter newsletter that since 2004, Republic Bank’s HIV/AIDS workplace programme has been exemplary for its focus on inclusion, “sourcing the input of all employees in the development of the programme.”  The Coalition says that Republic Bank’s Peer Educators “reach beyond the basics of HIV to address related health and social issues” that impact on the lives of the bank’s employees.

Scotia Bank, meanwhile, has been honoured by the coalition for its implementation of “a multi partner approach in order to have a substantial positive impact on the communities in which they operate.” The Coalition noted particularly the fact that Scotia Bank hosts on-site testing at its branches and that those facilities are accessible to both members of staff of the bank as well as to members of communities in which the banks are located.

Meanwhile, in naming NAMILCO as this year’s top performer in the Peer Educator category, the coalition noted the manner in which the company’s peer educators have been “applying their creativity and leadership to engage and educate their colleagues in new and entertaining ways.” NAMILCO’s peer educator group has won considerable acclaim within the company for their use of the performing arts to communicate important messages on HIV/AIDS through EDU-TAINMENT.

This year the Coalition also named Grace Kennedy Remittance Services Ltd, the Guyana Power and Light Company and Edward B. Beharry and Co. Ltd, as 2010 award winners.

Since its establishment in May 2008 the GBCHA has been the face of the private sector in the broader Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention (GHARP) project, recruiting a number of prominent local business entities to its ranks. At its  Annual General Meeting the Board of Directors of the Coalition declared that it will be seeking to continue to develop  “collaborative and sustainable partnerships” between the private sector, government and community organizations to strengthen the local and national response to HIV/AIDS. The Coalition Chairperson’s Annual Report for 2009 also restates its commitment to its other core pursuits including the implementation of non-discriminatory workplace policies that target stigma and discrimination, the promotion of action on HIV/AIDS at the community level and enhancing advocacy and leadership capacity.

Meanwhile, in her Report to last week’s Annual General Meeting, outgoing Coalition Board Chairperson, Scotia Bank Country Manager Amanda St. Aubyn said that in the year ahead the GBCHA will be seeking to build its membership “with a focus on those industries which carry a greater risk of HIV. Membership of the Coalition currently includes private sector entities in the agro-processing, banking, construction and engineering, mining and logging, hospitality, media, tourism, financial, services, shipping and textiles sectors.

The GBCHA is recognized as a key player in the public/private sector partnership in its fight against HIV/AIDS for its potential to influence wider private sector material and other contributions to the national response to HIV/AIDS. Last November, the Coalition played a major role in events to mark the National Week of Testing, with fifteen member companies providing financial support for the event and hosting 21 temporary testing sites across the country where two thousand persons were tested.

During the period under review the GBCHA also facilitated the hosting of the Fifth Annual Forum of the Pan Caribbean Business Coalition and HIV/AIDS which brought together representatives of the various regional Business Coalitions in an exercise which the Secretariat says was aimed at sharing best practices and formulating “a collective way forward for effective interventions within the private sector.” The Coalition says, meanwhile, that it will be seeking to ensure that its work does not result in “duplication of interventions” by seeking to collaborate with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and non-governmental organizations to continue to improve coordination and to standardize the private sector response to HIV/AIDS in Guyana. The Secretariat says that its capacity-enhancing pursuits in the future will include developing the capability “to provide evidence-based recommendations to policy makers and programme implementation as it applies to the private sector as well as to multi-sectoral collaboration.

At last week’s Annual General Meeting, General Manager of the Guyana Lottery Company Tracey Lewis was elected as the new Chairperson of the Coalition’s Board of Directors.