Corporates come together to fight HIV AIDS in the workplace
Private sector corporate entities have ventured into taking action against another health crisis area to mitigate and prevent the spread of the deadly HIV AIDS in the country.
This is through awareness and vital information through a website – ‘Passing Awareness on HIV AIDS is just a click away’; the information which could not be easily accessed, otherwise.
The Lanka Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (LBCH) – a group of private sector entities teamed up to prevent and mitigate this communicable disease, last week launched their revamped website ‘www.lbchconnect.com’ in Colombo which would provide lot of information that would make people aware on how to prevent the disease.
Kishu Gomez, Chairman (LBCH) and CEO and Managing Director, Chevron Lubricants Lanka, said at the launch that business leaders cannot ignore these vital issues and called on other business organizations to join hands in this cause to mitigate the incdence of HIV AIDS.
He said that in this endeavour, they have found admirable collaborations among even rival business organizations joining hands to make the people (workers) aware of the dangers of HIV AIDS through training programmes, which collaborations could well be emulated by other corporate giants in the country.
He said already two leading media organization have come forward to publish the messages of LBCH and about their revamped website which call could also be picked up by other media organizations which is an important vehicle to disseminate awareness and educate the public.
He said that earlier the world’s leading business organizations felt that it was not their responsibility to take measures to mitigate the spread of HIV AIDS including Chevron – the company he represents as they employ large numbers of these victims and had to involve large expenditure.
He said the countries that took action at the right time have been able to control the spread of the disease, but those countries who lagged behind are now suffering by spending large sums of money. He said that today there are ways and means in mitigating the spread at low cost and appealed to all the business leaders to take up this worthy cause as their responsibility to save the workforce and the nation.
Donglin LI, Country Director, Sri Lanka and Maldives, International Labour Organization (ILO) said that ILO appreciates the good work done by LBCH and prevention and spread could only be achieved with leadership and commitment which LBCH commands.
If the spread of the epidemic is not checked and prevented, it would affect the health of the workforce. This would increase labour cost, worker turnover would be retarded and the overall productivity would also be affected, that in turn would be a burden on the economy of the country. ILO is also concerned about these victims being marginalized and there is a need to ensure their dignity and to protect their rights.