Lanka Biz Coalition on HIV/AIDS hold AGM

Lanka Business Coalition on HIV & AIDS had its Annual General Meeting at the Cinnamon Lake Side Hotel, Colombo on 29 September 2011 which was attended by the members of the Coalition.

Membership includes all top corporates in Sri-Lanka such as John Keels, Standard Chartered Bank, Hayleys, Aitken Spence, HNB, Dialog, Chevron Lubricants, Brandix etc.

Kishu Gomes, CEO Chevron Lubricants was unanimously elected as the Chairman of Lanka Business Coalition on HIV & AIDS for the year 2011/2012 succeeding Lalith Ramanayake of John Keels. Kishu served on the board of directors since 2009 and was a steering committee member since its inception.

Kishu Gomes addressing the gathering following his election gave a pledge that he will dedicate himself fully to deliver the expectations of all the stakeholders of LBCH.

He stressed upon the need for the Sri-Lankan business leaders to recognise the magnitude of the issue with two new HIV cases reported every week. While Sri-Lanka is considered a low prevalence country, given that the country’s economic growth is centered around tourism, foreign employment, trade, sport marketing, exports related travelling etc, our workforce has become highly vulnerable.  He said that the biggest asset we have is the people asset with over 8 million people in the workforce and hence, we as business leaders should recognize the issue and own it for a solution thru early mitigation action.

He further said that the Triple bottom- line focus with adequate attention to people is the way forward and appealed to the business leaders to join hands with the LBCH to change the attitude towards this alarming issue to prevent Sri-Lanka from having to experience what Africa is going through today.

Dayo Aderugbo, Corporate Affairs Manager, Standard Chartered Bank Guest speaker flown in from Nigeria shared the experience from the rest of world; South Africa in particular and stressed upon the need to respond to the challenge early. She shared the best practices with the audience.

LBCH will soon be embarking on the new journey under a new team to help the private sector employers in SL with employee awareness, workplace policy implementation support and global best practice sharing etc.

Raising awareness on HIV and AIDS in the workplace demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to being a good corporate citizen. It also demonstrates its sense of moral obligation to the well-being of its employees, customers, and the wider community in which they function.

Global surveys reveal that HIV/AIDS has reached pandemic proportions due to its unchecked growth caused primarily by a lack of awareness. No country has escaped the spread of this deadly disease, and if this trend continues, it is bound to have serious consequences on the world’s future employable population.

Although Sri Lanka is considered a low prevalence country, research indicates that widespread poverty and armed conflict could be a trigger for the rapid spread of  HIV/AIDS. Where these two factors exist simultaneously, HIV/AIDS can become a developmental setback and undo up to four decades of economic progress.

Until recently, the curbing of the spread of HIV/AIDS had been totally vested with the government, activist groups and the public health community. It has now become evident that these entities need support to sustain and progress with this daunting task. In response, the business community has taken the initiative and has become a driving force in creating awareness; the seriousness of HIV/AIDS and preventive measures. Being a part of this response is not only a show of good corporate governance, but is also one of corporate self-interest, by way of preserving a healthy workforce.

We can learn from the experiences of other businesses and should heed the warning made to business leaders by Dr. Brian Brink, Medical Director for the South African mining conglomerate Anglo American, who said:

“Don’t make the same mistake we made in South Africa – we saw this coming but the first reaction of businesses was that it wasn’t our problem, that it wasn’t threatening us now, that we’d let the government sort it out.”

For details, contact: Sharmini Mendis, Coordinator, Lanka Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS can be contacted on [email protected].