“It is essential for SA companies to follow global trends in corporate wellness to proactively ensure the health and improved productivity of its workforce while providing an effective tool to managing ((HIV))/((AIDS)),” says Dr Craig Nossel, Head of Vitality Wellness at Discovery.
((South Africa)) has the sixth highest prevalence of HIV in the world, with 18.8% of the population estimated to be infected. The UNAIDS 2006 Global Report estimates that 320 000 people died of AIDS-related deaths in South Africa during 2005.
“Absenteeism costs directly related to HIV/AIDS are between R 1.8 billion and R 2.2 billion annually so being able to offer counselling and medical advice onsite while providing access to a formal disease management programme including access to antiretroviral medication is paramount,” says Dr Nossel.
According to UNAIDS, "Many faith-based initiatives have been on the front-line of the epidemic since its devastating effects on the population became apparent in Africa. Nowadays, faith-based organizations, which often reach the most remote communities, as well as being prominent in large urban centres, are uniquely placed to provide a range of quality HIV-related services (from training of home-based caregivers to provision of antiretroviral therapy) to those in need."
"However, the valuable work of organizations within the Catholic Church based upon their religious principles sometimes lacked the coordination and level of support needed to improve the effectiveness of their responses to the AIDS epidemic."
The Mail & Guardian reports from Kenya’s ((World AIDS Day)) conference that Anglican Church Archbishop, Benjamin Nzimbi, has accused churches in Kenya of not doing enough to deal with issues of stigma and discrimination and the devastating impact of HIV/Aids. “We have too many smart talkers who are saying all the right things but there is very little action to show for it. Very little of the monies given towards HIV/AIDS programmes actually reach the people infected or affected by the disease. A huge proportion goes towards fat-cat salaries and administrative costs."
The problem is clearly having an economic impact and it is essential that initiatives taken towards alleviating the HIV/ AIDS are not so expensive that they result in further and unnecessary hardship. Further reinforcing the need for corporate leadership and responsibility in wellness initiatives, Dr Nosel says, "These changes reduce their health and injury risks, improve their health consumer skills and enhance their individual productivity and well-being through a preventative and proactive, rather than reactive approach to health care."
((George W Bush)) has been mighty surprised by the tenacity and persistence of the instability and violence in ((Iraq)). Since 1958 Iraqis have been ruled by a series of tyrants culminating in the barbaric rule of ((Saddam Hussein)).
The ((environment)) is one of savage authority. The physical shape of the cities was inspired by ((oppression)). Every law, from drivers’ licences to business permits, has been inspired by a blood-thirsty dictatorship.
A person growing up in such an environment has a choice. Be something the system doesn’t want you to be, or fit in with the system. If you choose to fight the system, well, let’s just say that Saddam’s prisons never struggled to find tenants.
If you really wanted to be something else, and you weren’t prepared to go against the state, then you became a refugee and started a new life in a more accommodating place. In other words, you changed your environment.
Across the breadth of history people who didn’t agree or didn’t like the environment in which they found themselves left and went to start new lives in new places. Seeing as how difficult it is to do this usually only the most ((talent))ed and ambitious would do so. Countries built by immigrants (such as Australia or the US) tend to be more dynamic and sophisticated than those where internal strife resulted in mass ((emigration)) (anywhere in Africa).
Ireland was an economic and social mess up until it joined the EU in 1973. Membership gave it an astonishing advantage. The ((Common Agricultural Policy)) dramatically increased the prices of its agricultural products and gave them free access to mainland Europe. It also had similar access for its other manufactures. Investment flooded into the country to take advantage of its cheap labour, low land prices and direct access to the EU. The Irish diaspora also came home, bringing their experiences of more sophisticated climes with them.
The real advantage that Ireland enjoyed in 1973 was a sudden change in the environment it had experienced to date.
Social development organisations usually focus on individual support since it is difficult to change environments. These are usually the prerogative of governments and multinational bodies (like the UN). What is interesting about the Millennium Development Goals is how many of them are dependent on government intervention.
NGOs may work in Africa to assist with medication and symptomatic relief for individuals suffering from ((malaria)) but governments could help things by removing their excise duties on mosquito nets. They are not made in Africa but are imported. Prices vary from $ 45 in Swaziland to $ 35 in Sudan rendering them unaffordable to most. NGOs also have to pay these duties, severely reducing the scope of their reach. When Uganda dropped import tariffs to 5% the price plummeted to $ 3.50 per net and malaria levels plunged.
As in peace-keeping so in development. You could be the best development agency in the world doing the best job in the world but if the environment itself doesn’t support your efforts then your impact will be minimal.
A report from the Pretoria News offers a chilling perspective: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will cost just over $ 800 000 a month to maintain - but it will never "in the next 100 years be for one day a burden on the government of South Africa".
I'm pleased that it won't be a burden on the South Africa taxpayer and that this money will come out of the trust that ((Oprah Winfrey)) is setting up but, as a I asked in a previous post, is this really the most effective use of resources? The most expensive independent schools in South Africa offering the best educations, and including room and board, charge about $ 13 800 per student, per year. Winfrey's ((school)) dwarfs that. Her 152 pupils will each cost over $ 60 000 per year to teach, house and feed. This is significantly higher than the $ 7 500 I originally mentioned and I can only hope that further costs don't emerge.
How she spends her money is entirely her prerogative. One hopes that the money in the trust won't run out any time soon and strand the very girls who are meant to be the beneficiaries.
However, there is much debate in the US regarding her ((generosity)) to ((South Africa)), especially over comments such as, "“The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers,” she said in Newsweek while speaking of US inner-city schools. “In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so that they can go to school.” A naive comment, both about the US and about South Africa.
152 girls get to benefit from a "22-acre campus with marble flooring, outdoor and indoor theatres, a beauty salon and a yoga studio." The rest of South Africa can only stand and stare.
Once again, I pose the challenge, what should we be doing to promote ((education)) in Africa? This certainly doesn't sound like it.
