Partnering to Eliminate HIV/AIDS
In Africa, HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects women, increasing the risk of mother-to-child transmission of the disease and threatening communities. In response, Chevron has made the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Angola, Nigeria and South Africa one of our priorities.
We partner with governments and global, national and local organizations to strengthen health systems, create greater HIV/AIDS awareness, reduce the stigma associated with the disease, and provide access to testing and treatment.
Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission
In Angola and Nigeria, our workplace program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV creates a culture that encourages HIV testing and treatment, fights the stigma associated with the disease and provides comprehensive medical care for employees and their dependents. The program has had a remarkable impact: For 12 years in Nigeria and eight years in Angola, there have been no reports of mother-to-child HIV transmission among our employees or their qualified dependents.
To expand on our success and have a greater impact in the community, we launched partnerships with Pact, mothers2mothers, and the Business Leadership Council for a Generation Born HIV Free (BLC) in July 2012. By Working together we can help strengthen Nigeria's efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
In 2012, our partnership with the BLC began working to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Nigeria’s Nasarawa State, where the state government now leads the effort. Since the pilot program launched, the number of facilities offering prevention services has more than quadrupled. More than 20,000 pregnant women have been tested for HIV, and more than 1000 HIV-positive women have initiated anti-retroviral drug treatment.
In 2013, due to the successes in Nasarawa, we announced a three-year commitment to expand the BLC program to Bayelsa, Rivers and Lagos states. Through these and other programs, we are working side by side with our partners in the public and private sector to meet the UN Global Plan to eliminate new HIV infections in children by 2015.
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
In 2008, Chevron invested $30 million over three years to become the inaugural Corporate Champion of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Of our total investment, $20 million was dedicated to HIV/AIDS programs. This investment has helped support programs in Angola, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa and Thailand.
In addition, Chevron has directed a total of $25 million between 2011 and 2013 to the U.S. Fund for the Global Fund, a U.S. nonprofit established to encourage individuals, corporations and charities to provide support for the mission of the Global Fund. The U.S. Fund for the Global Fund is using this contribution to support the Global Fund's HIV/AIDS grants in Angola, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam.
In June 2011, Chevron joined UNAIDS, the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other leading world groups in pledging $20 million to eliminate new HIV infections among children by 2015 and help keep mothers alive.
Providing Pediatric Health Care
We also partner with Baylor College of Medicine and the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) at Texas Children's Hospital, the largest university-based program in the world dedicated to improving the lives of HIV-infected children. BIPAI’s Global Health Corps Program provides life-saving pediatric health care, treatment and training to the most medically underserved populations in Africa. Our five-year, $6 million agreement supports the recruitment and training of several American physicians each year to expand the program’s focus into Angola and Liberia.
Fighting Sickle Cell Anemia
Chevron is providing $4 million over four years for the Angola Sickle Cell Initiative. Chevron partnered with the Republic of Angola, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital in 2011 to create Angola's first comprehensive program to screen and treat newborns for sickle cell anemia. Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder that causes susceptibility to infection, hemolytic anemia, sporadic blockage of blood vessels and organ damage. In Africa, no universal screening program for newborns exists.
The program began testing in July 2011 at two large maternity hospitals in Luanda, which each have 50 to 100 births per day. Over 18 months, the pilot program screened more than 33,000 babies, resulting in approximately 7,000 testing positive for the sickle cell trait.
South Africa
Chevron partners with North Star Alliance, an organization created to address the impact of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases among long-distance truck drivers and their communities. A Roadside Wellness Center at a Caltex truck stop off a major highway near Durban provides health services to the estimated 3,500 truckers who travel the route each day.
Thailand
We work with PATH and the Mahasadum Group to conduct AIDS Education Youth Camps. More than 120 young leaders received leadership and HIV/AIDS-awareness training. AIDS Awareness workshops also were conducted in 20 schools in Nakhon Si Thamarat Province and reached more than 1,200 students. Through a parent educator program, PATH and Chevron taught more than 12,000 adults the skills they need to communicate with their children about HIV/AIDS.
West Java, Indonesia
In Indonesia, we work in partnership with JHPIEGO and the local government to improve maternal and newborn health services in communities surrounding Chevron's production area in East Kalimantan Province and in Riau Province. During this three-year project, which started in January 2011, we developed a model for strengthening access to and quality of midwifery services to ensure that all pregnant women and newborns are afforded skilled care before, during and after delivery. The activities include a series of training sessions for midwives in infection prevention, normal delivery care, basic emergency obstetrics and newborn care at the Community Health Center. Also included is a series of programs to improve community maternal and newborn care services.
Nigeria
Chevron Nigeria has deployed its Workplace Wellness initiative to small and medium-size businesses in Abuja, Kogi, Lagos and Nassarawa states. Although many large businesses in Nigeria have begun offering HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services to employees, the vast majority of small and mid-size businesses—which make up 70 to 80 percent of businesses in Nigeria—have not. This peer education program includes training about HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis for employees as well as members of their communities.