Using community conversations to improve workplace HIV services

© Peter Strauli for the Manicaland HIV Prevention Project
Helping workers determine their HIV status and manage their infection is an important way that employers can contribute to combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is an ethical duty and also smart business. Good workplace HIV management can keep HIV-positive workers healthy for many years and ultimately increase the company’s productivity.
To help workplaces support their HIV-positive employees, we set out to review reports on what African companies are doing about HIV and interviewed Zimbabwean workers on antiretroviral treatment (ART). We compiled this information in a booklet, which explains why supporting HIV-positive workers is so important for businesses. It provides concrete recommendations on how to go about it.
Using the booklet as background information, members of the Manicaland HIV project brought together, in groups, employers and worker representatives to discuss what concrete actions they can take to make their organisation more supportive of HIV-positive workers. A total of 7 community conversations were held between January and May 2011. The Manicaland Project
continues to distribute the booklet and encourage workplaces to discuss and develop a HIV strategy.
To help workplaces support their HIV-positive employees, we set out to review reports on what African companies are doing about HIV and interviewed Zimbabwean workers on antiretroviral treatment (ART). We compiled this information in a booklet, which explains why supporting HIV-positive workers is so important for businesses. It provides concrete recommendations on how to go about it.
Using the booklet as background information, members of the Manicaland HIV project brought together, in groups, employers and worker representatives to discuss what concrete actions they can take to make their organisation more supportive of HIV-positive workers. A total of 7 community conversations were held between January and May 2011. The Manicaland Project
continues to distribute the booklet and encourage workplaces to discuss and develop a HIV strategy.