chevron and HIV/AIDS: a legacy of resilience

The International AIDS Society’s (IAS) bi-annual conference is a critical forum for presenting new research, promoting collaboration and developing strategies to advance the global response to HIV. Chevron has been involved with the IAS conference since 2006 and has been a sponsor since 2012.

The 2020 conference was originally planned for July 6 – 10, but will now be a virtual format due to COVID-19. What has not changed are our plans to participate in the conference or our dedication to the cause.

This year’s conference theme of resilience is more poignant than ever as we all seek to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing global health landscape and to persevere in the face of uncertainty. The conference call to action for resilience is closely tied to Chevron’s approach of continually investing in our workforce and communities to improve health.

The Bay Area is more than just home to our corporate headquarters. Four decades ago, Chevron and other companies began to see the effect AIDS was having on their employees and beloved community. In 1986, we joined 13 other Bay Area companies to promote HIV/AIDS education in the workplace.

A few years later, Chevon began noticing that some of our largest operations were in areas where the grip of AIDS was growing rapidly, such as Angola, Nigeria, South Africa and Thailand. We began developing our own workplace education and support programs, and we launched partnerships around the globe to help educate communities, prevent new infections and improve access to care and support.

In 2005, Chevron was the first oil and gas company to institute a global comprehensive HIV/AIDS Policy and Program for employees, including confidential access to HIV testing and treatment for employees and their dependents. In 2018, we began taking steps to ensure that our employees and qualified dependents have appropriate access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment, which has been proven to make a difference in communities where HIV/AIDS has taken a terrible toll.

We bring global experience, leadership and financial resources to assist in addressing the health risks having the greatest potential impact on our colleagues, their families and the communities where we operate. Our health efforts aim to strengthen health systems; improve health equity and security; and empower sustainable interventions for preventing disease in our workforce and communities.

And we do not address these issues alone. In these unprecedented times, the power of our partnerships to be resilient, and in turn to support the resilience of our communities, has never been more important. Together, we leverage data to inform, educate and advocate for improvements in health. Together, we combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, Zika, dengue fever, influenza, COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in risk-prone locations. And together, we look for ways to innovate and continually improve.

One example is our long-standing support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and their work in Africa and the Pacific Rim. Since 2008 we have contributed over $60 million, furthering their success in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, reducing new HIV infections and improving the quality of life for the infected and those affected by the disease.

In 2018, Chevron announced a $1 million grant to Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to expand its advocacy and education work to grow U.S. support for the Global Fund’s lifesaving work and also directed $2.5 million of funding to the implementation of the Chevron-Global Fund Anti-Retroviral Treatment Service Maintenance Program in Nigeria.

In the Bay Area, Chevron funds mobile HIV testing units in collaboration with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Oakland-based California Prevention Education Project (CAL-PEP). These vehicles travel around the community testing people that may be homeless, without insurance or who may be unable to see a doctor. Our funds and partnership enable testing, counseling and treatment, all in a comfortable space with understanding professionals. Chevron’s contributions helped CAL-PEP add a new hygiene vehicle to their service provision, supporting the group’s One Stop Health Mobile Services program and community outreach strategy.

As the world strives to combat the global pandemic facing us today, there is still a vital need to increase awareness, fight stigma and improve education around HIV and AIDS. Chevron and our nonprofit partners have made tremendous strides over the last 35 years, but we need to stay strong, work together and continue the fight until we get to zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero HIV-AIDS stigma.