AWARDS FOR BUSINESS EXCELLENCE 1999

ALMS, Czech Republic
ALMS is a small but successful IT and marketing agency with Czech and international clients as well. In 1998 they created the first Czech web site on AIDS for the general public with the help of AIDS agencies. The interactive nature of the web enables the organizers to pose questions that help monitor users' opinions and behavior. ALMS wanted to reach children and young people - a group with higher than average interest in the Web - and the popularity of this site proves that they have already enjoyed considerable success. The strength of the project stems from its combined use of expert guidance, appropriate technology and the local language, helping it to make a real difference to the availability of reliable and current HIV information.

Anglo Coal, South Africa
Anglo Coal is a division of Anglo American operating nine collieries in South Africa. The company recognized the need for an AIDS strategy in 1993. Most of their 10,000 employees operate in isolated communities: any HIV prevention programme would need to address the needs of these communities, not just Anglo employees. The subsequent programme of management and prevention has been both ambitious and effective. Anglo Coal became partners in the Kriel project, along with Eskom and Ingwe Coal. This project targets sex workers and their clients, seeking to empower the former to protect themselves and to promote solidarity, cohesion and mutual support within their community. Anglo Coal contributed to the project's training, technical needs and monitoring.

Larsen & Toubro Limited, India
Larsen and Toubro is a long established engineering company with plants across India. As far back as 1985, L & T realized the need to take a long-term view of HIV and AIDS and address the implications for its employees, their families and the community at large. At the company's Powai Works in Mumbai it targeted 10,000 employees and 6,000 of their wives and children. This comprehensive awareness and education programme was not typical of the business response in India, and the Coalition particularly appreciated Larsen and Toubro's efforts to engage other companies with the issue. By holding a seminar on HIV and AIDS for businesses in Mumbai in 1995, the company helped to establish Industry Response to AIDS or IRTA, representing 13 of Mumbai's largest companies. They have also shared their experiences through the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Volkswagen, Brazil
Volkswagen employs 30,000 people in its Brazilian factories. The company, however, has 100,000 people in its Medical Health Plan, including employees' dependants and retired employees. By 1996 their experience with HIV and AIDS was typified by "long hospitalizations, high incidence of opportunistic diseases, low adhesion to the internal, external and public health resources, high treatment cost and little benefit"; employees experienced "frequent interruptions, precocious illness and short life expectancy". Volkswagen was able to quantify the cost of HIV and AIDS. In the summer of 1996 the company established an "AIDS Care Program": the latest in medical care and clinical support was to be complemented by HIV information and prevention using all the communication systems at the company's disposal and the installation of condom machines. Three years later, Volkswagen could show it had achieved a reduction in hospitalizations, high adherence to the programme, greater clinical control and disease prevention, and better quality of life. Hospitalizations are down by 90% and HIV/AIDS costs are down 40%.

American International Assurance (AIA), Thailand
AIA, a subsidiary of AIG, is Thailand's largest life insurance company. In order to encourage their policy holders to implement and improve their workplace education programs, AIA joined the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS (TBCA) to develop an evaluation and accreditation programme aimed at providing "credited premium value" to companies implementing workplace HIV/AIDS education for their staff. GBC believes this to be the first program of its kind. AIA has successfully integrated HIV/AIDS into their business operations, thereby assuring sustainability and demonstrating long term corporate responsibility.