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Under IFC Against AIDS guidance work, projects included companies in the following sectors: banking, telecommunications, mining, tourism, construction, transportation, horticulture, and energy.
Flagship Projects
Angola: Odebrecht
India: Apollo Tyres Company
Apollo Tyres Company and HIV/AIDS in India
Apollo Tyres Company is India’s leading automobile tyre manufacturer and sells 60% of its production to the commercial sector, which includes trucks and buses. The company has four plants: Kalamassery, Perambra, Limda and Pune.
Commercial production began in 1977 with an installed capacity of 420,000 tyres and a similar number of tyre tubes. Today the company is a leader in the Indian tyre industry with a network of over 4,000 dealers, the largest in the country.
Every day as many as 5,000 trucks pass through SGTN, which has a daily mobile population of 4,000 to 5,500. The company considers truck drivers to be a key community constituency, and truckers and other migrant workers are among the groups with the highest estimated rates of HIV infection in India. Studies have shown that long distance truckers in India are more vulnerable to STIs, a predisposing factor in HIV infection.
In 2000, Apollo launched an HIV/AIDS program to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in the workforce, which has over the years developed into nation-wide HIV prevention efforts and targeted health services for truckers, through a network of clinics located in transportation hubs. These clinics directly serve the health needs of truck drivers. Physicians and health workers provide general health services for a nominal fee to truckers and their helpers.
The clinics also focus some of their efforts on education and prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV. Truckers and other community members receive treatment for various health conditions, condoms, and education on STIs and HIV/AIDS.
Working with IFC
In 2004, IFC initiated conversations with Apollo Tyres and other IFC clients in India on how to assist them to proactively address HIV/AIDS in three areas: the workplace, companies’ clinical facilities, and the community. Consequently, in 2005 Apollo Tyres submitted a proposal to IFC for funding of a project worth US$144,000. The project had three main components:
(a) to scale up the HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention program at its four factory sites;
(b) to enhance the medical capacity to address HIV/AIDS at clinics supported by Apollo Tyres; and
(c) to address the epidemic among a much larger trucking community across India.
IFC provided two grants of US$72,000 and US$118,000 to Apollo for its HIV/AIDS program which were matched by Apollo’s own funds and coupled with continuous technical support from IFC. This support has helped the company to scale up its original the program since 2005.
Kenya: Magadi Soda Company
Kenya: Serena Hotels
About the Company
The Serena group of hotels and lodges is run by the Aga khan Development Network. Serena owns and operates several hotels in Kenya, Tanzania and Pakistan,as well as in Mozambique, Zanzibar and Uganda. The group employs over 1,200 people in Kenya alone.
HIV/AIDS in Kenya
Kenya is one of the countries that has been hit hard by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to the joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), in 2004 about 1.2 million adults and children there were living with HIV. While national HIV prevalence was 6.7%, infection among adults in urban areas (10%) was almost twice as high as in rural areas (5–6%). Largely due to AIDS, Kenya’s life expectancy dropped from 60 to 45 years from 1990 to 2002.
Uganda: DFCU
Other Projects
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