A strategy for HIV/AIDS education & prevention
The social, cultural and economic impact of the AIDS pandemic has been huge with HIV/AIDS claiming over 1.2 million Kenyan lives. However, the figures are dropping. According to the most recent official estimates, about one in every fifteen people is infected with HIV - half the number in 2002.
As there is currently no cure for AIDS, education and prevention are critical to halt the spread of the disease and are the main line of defence. Unilever has therefore developed a strategy along these lines. The strategy forms part of our commitment to the occupational health of our employees. It focuses on: providing access to primary health care and treatment; protecting health in the workplace; ensuring medical fitness for the job; and actively promoting health and well-being.
Unilever Kenya has been putting this strategy into practice for the last fifteen years, operating a long-running campaign to communicate to its employees about HIV/AIDS. Initially this proved a brave step, as the condition was still a taboo subject.
Sharing learning with other companies
Early on in its campaign, Unilever Kenya recognised that the problem of HIV/AIDS stretched beyond the walls of its own operations. Unilever also saw that working in partnership was the only way to effectively tackle the causes of HIV/AIDS. It therefore approached five other major companies and suggested pooling their efforts to combat the pandemic. Dubbed 'Neighbours Against AIDS', the coalition of companies meets regularly to share ideas and experience.
In a separate initiative, Unilever Kenya also helped set up the Kenya HIV/AIDS Private Sector Business Council. The Council aims to provide information and resources that will help employers combat stigma in the workplace. As part of our partnership with the Council, we have run a series of awareness-raising activities over the years, ranging from workshops and workplace posters to peer education schemes and education leaflets. Other companies have taken our model as the basis for setting up their own workplace progammes.
From awareness to action
Awareness of HIV/AIDS is now almost universal among the Kenyan population, says Mumbi Kyalo, Corporate Relations Manager with Unilever Kenya. So there was a need to "move onto the next stage", as she puts it, explaining the rationale behind two campaigns launched in 2004. The twin campaigns were targeted at encouraging people to go for HIV tests and to think about HIV/AIDS risks associated with their sexual relationships.
These themes formed the centrepiece of the annual week of events that Unilever Kenya runs in August, together with other members of the Neighbours Against AIDS coalition. The week of activities focuses on employees of the coalition companies and culminates in a fun and entertaining spectacle in a local sports stadium. During 2004's event, 271 people went for HIV tests in direct response to the companies' campaign.
"Employees attribute a lot of their behavioural change to the campaigns that we've started in the workplace. The week of events, for example, gives them a platform to interact with other people. It provides them with a forum to come out and speak, as well as a forum for the company to understand what employees feel about the threat of AIDS," says Mumbi.
