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HIV/ AIDS Programs in Africa
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| ChevronTexaco was an underwriting partner in A Day in the Life of Africa , an international photojournalism project with profits going to AIDS education. |
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According to UNAIDS and the World Health Organization, at the end of 2002 there were 29.4 million adults and children living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 3.5 million new infections occurred there in 2002 and an estimated 2.4 million Africans died from the epidemic in that year.
ChevronTexaco is the largest U.S.-based investor in sub-Saharan Africa and HIV/AIDS - as well as other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis - have had a profound impact on ChevronTexaco's employees and their families, our contractors and our host communities throughout Africa. In addition to the human toll of HIV/AIDS, we also recognize that the success of our company is linked inextricably to the health and productivity of employees and the communities we operate in. ChevronTexaco is responding by developing a range of programs aimed at combating HIV/AIDS and other public health issues in Africa.
Throughout our operations in Angola, Nigeria and South Africa, ChevronTexaco promotes voluntary, confidential testing, provides condoms to employees, and gives antiretroviral drugs to pregnant women to stop mother-to-child transmission of AIDS. ChevronTexaco employees and their families receive high-quality, comprehensive health care. In Nigeria and Angola, the company employs about 250 medical personnel and runs its own clinics and hospitals. In South Africa, the full scope of HIV/AIDS treatment services, including antiretroviral drugs, are delivered to employees and their families by medical aid service providers. The company also developed an HIV/AIDS awareness and communication program, training more than 50 staff members to ensure ongoing awareness on HIV/AIDS among staff.
Over the last several years, ChevronTexaco's African business units have been working to more closely coordinate their HIV/AIDS initiatives and better share information and learning across their different operations. For example, ChevronTexaco's subsidiaries in Angola and Nigeria have developed an overarching HIV policy based on a successful Caltex (South Africa) model. Representatives of the different medical departments are in regular communication, helping one another address practical issues.
In 2001, Chevron Nigeria Ltd. (CNL), a wholly owned ChevronTexaco subsidiary, received the Award for Excellence by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS for its awareness and prevention programs, dating back to 1993. CNL's program also was cited as a best practice by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In early 2003, in recognition of the company's efforts, CNL's Managing Director Jay Pryor was named by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as co-chairman of the Nigerian Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS.
As part of CNL's HIV/AIDS program, union leaders act as peer educators in company workshops, teaching the causes and means of prevention of HIV/AIDS and encouraging employees to discuss cultural barriers to prevention. The company spreads its prevention message to the community, where an interactive youth program uses peer educators and role playing to target employees' children. Education workshops in the broader community promote safe sex, especially to prostitutes.
In Angola, ChevronTexaco's subsidiary, CABGOC, runs a number of HIV/AIDS programs for employees, their families and the local community. In 1992, the company also helped the government set up a blood bank in Cabinda, Angola's northernmost province, which reduced the number of HIV cases caused by contaminated blood from 25 percent to 1 percent. CABGOC also manages a related program to help the local government fight tuberculosis (TB). Identified cases of TB have more than tripled in the province since 1993, due in part to better diagnostics and awareness, but also due to Cabinda's rising rates of HIV. In addition to striking similar age groups, the diseases fuel one another: TB accelerates HIV's progression, and HIV increases the risk of developing TB.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, ChevronTexaco's subsidiary, Muanda Oil Co., conducts annual HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns for hundreds of employees, contractors and their families, one of the few such efforts in that nation.
Additionally, in 2000, ChevronTexaco provided funding for "cyber training" about HIV/AIDS through the Women's Media Center to equip African journalists with knowledge about the disease, its spread and special training on reporting and writing about HIV/AIDS in Africa. In 2002, ChevronTexaco was also a proud sponsor of the photo-documentary book A Day in the Life of Africa, with all profits from sales going to HIV/AIDS education in Africa.
According to Dr. Steve Simpson, ChevronTexaco's regional medical director in West Africa, the greatest remaining challenge the company faces related to its HIV/AIDS efforts in Africa is to find a sustainable model for the delivery of antiretroviral therapy. In 2002, CABGOC set up a multidisciplinary task force to explore this and other issues. The task force is in the final stages of the project and will share its findings with other business units. Summing up the company's efforts, Simpson says, "No business anywhere in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, can afford to ignore AIDS. As far as ChevronTexaco is concerned, this is a fight we will not, cannot and must not walk away from."
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