HM19
ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI REPORT TO SOCIETY 2004
HIV/AIDS AND MALARIA
Case studies - South Africa - HIV/AIDS
Johanna Moleko knew that something was amiss when she started experiencing bad bouts of dizziness, leaving her unable to stand for more than five minutes at a time.
Putting her symptoms down to low blood pressure, she consulted her doctor who booked her into hospital for three days. But when her symptoms persisted, and she became aware of significant weight loss, her suspicions were aroused.
She had been for HIV/AIDS voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) in October 2002 at AngloGold Health Service's (AHS) West Wits Wellness Clinic at Western Deep Levels Hospital, where the results were negative. But she wasn't convinced. “I have a feeling that I'm HIV positive,” thought Moleko who went for a follow-up test in December 2002. Her fears were confirmed when a counsellor gave her the diagnosis. However, as a nurse working in the tuberculosis (TB) ward at the hospital, Moleko knew about HIV and AIDS and took the news more calmly than others might have.
On first meeting Moleko, one is immediately struck by her calm nature. She's a deeply religious person who attributes her faith to pulling her through the worst crisis in her life. So instead of feeling sorry for herself and looking to apportion blame, she accepted her fate almost immediately. But not before making a pact with the virus, which she has personalised by naming it ‘House in Vereeniging’ – an acronym for HIV. “Let's live together as friends,” she appealed to it. “You know I can't kill you so I am accepting you.”
She decided to attend the West Wits Wellness Clinic on a regular basis, revealing her condition to a close family member and to a trusted friend, as well as to her Supervisor and to the Assistant Matron of the ward. Since TB is an opportunistic infection for people living with HIV/AIDS, Moleko was moved from the TB Ward, where she'd worked for 10 years, to the out-patients department. When her CD4 count dropped to 187 from 500 and her viral load increased to 1,986, she decided to undertake anti- retroviral therapy (ART) in April 2004. But not before finally sharing her condition with her children – a daughter of 21 and a son of 19. The thought of telling them had haunted her since she first received the diagnosis and it was a huge relief once they knew.
Since then, Moleko has publicly declared her status to colleagues on Aids Awareness Day, on 1 December 2004. Her reasoning is simple, “If we can be open, join hands and fight, there won't be a stigma.” Moleko is one of a few employees at AngloGold Ashanti and AHS, who, by being outspoken about their status, are hoping to help destigmatise the disease and encourage acceptance by both HIV positive and negative people. As a role model, she continues to speak out.
She engages in informal counselling and has attended a peer educator course in line with best practice that favours ‘lifetime experience’ over ‘theoretical experience’ – i.e. those living with or affected by HIV/AIDS are best equipped to interact with others at an educational and emotional level. It is also reassuring that the diminutive Moleko, despite her condition, is healthy and sprightly – due to a combination of medication and attitude. She copes with a regular 07:00 to 15:30 nursing shift and, indeed, appears so normal that some question whether she really is HIV positive! After three months of ART her CD4 count picked up to 218 and her viral load dropped to below 50. “Accept the virus and live positively,” is her advice, along with “Be open to talk. Don't be afraid even though it is painful.”
Moleko has now proposed setting up a support group for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS which has the backing of both management and unions.
7.4 Living with HIV/AIDS – an employee’s story
HM20
HIV/AIDS AND MALARIA
Case studies - South Africa - HIV/AIDS
As significant employers of largely unskilled employees, South Africa mining companies have found themselves at the forefront of programmes aimed at HIV/AIDS education and awareness.
Peer education was introduced in 2000 as a way of changing behaviour patterns to ensure safer sexual practices among employees and external groups (families and communities), through either formal or informal interaction with an educator they could feel comfortable with – for example, someone with whom they socialise, play sport, or share a room. It was felt that the peer educator approach would remove any feelings of imposition by management, and that employees were more likely to engage with educators from a similar lifestyle in a non-threatening environment. Buti Kulwane, assistant manager HIV/AIDS at AngloGold Health Service has been involved with peer education since the early 1990s, when it was really the only form of education – and informal at that.
“Over the years, however, companies recognised its effectiveness as a teaching tool and the mining industry, in particular, decided to include it as part of its formal education and awareness programmes, linked to government’s five-year HIV/AIDS strategic plan. As a result AngloGold Ashanti trained its first peer educators in 2001.”
Peer educators are trained in a variety of skills including presentation techniques; participatory facilitation; sexually transmitted infections (STIs), gender issues and TB; and how the immune system works (e.g. understanding the viral load and CD4 count). Education sessions are held either formally in weekly group meetings with employees or informally on a daily basis with individuals. Peer education also takes place as part of induction training (when employees return from leave and are reacquainted with mine safety procedures) or is promoted at quarterly business unit awareness campaigns.
Up until last year peer educators were trained by AngloGold Ashanti’s in-house peer educator trainer; 351 peer educators were trained between 2001 and 2003. However, during 2004 AngloGold Ashanti’s in- house trainer left the health service with the result that only 14 peer educators were trained in 2004. The company has now decided to engage the services of an external South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) accredited training vendor, and courses were scheduled to commence at the end of March 2005. As training is to become an external function, individual mines will now be responsible for the logistics of peer educator training and payment thereof.
Two regional co-coordinators were appointed at the end of 2004 to ensure effective peer education through monitoring, mentoring and motivating, the key pillars of peer education sustainability. The training vendor will also be responsible for skills and knowledge transfer in these three spheres. Key performance areas in the newly established regional co-ordinator positions are training provision; leadership and control; and liaison and communication.
Philip Alexander, Savuka’s senior human resources officer, has been involved with his mine’s peer education programme for the last three years. Savuka is unique in that it has an HIV/AIDS information centre as well as a full-time peer educator, Jutas Rikhotso, a former driller underground. Rikhotso was inspired to become a part-time peer educator in 1999 because he wanted to know more about HIV/AIDS and to tell others about it, after realising that people generally weren’t educated about the disease. He assumed the role of full-time peer educator in 2003 and now conducts training sessions for employees at Savuka’s training centre. Since employees’ partners are also an important target group in changing sexual behaviour patterns, Rikhotso also educates groups of wives, girlfriends and sex workers at the visiting wives’ centre, accompanied by a female VCT counsellor.
Savuka also has 27 part-time peer educators but aims to have 37 by the end of 2005; this will reduce the ratio to one peer educator for 80 people. (Guidelines vary from 1:20 up to 1:100.) According to Alexander, incentives are important in motivating peer educators and encouraging on-going peer education commitment. Savuka awards peer educators with certificates of PE competence, and distributes AIDS- related goods (e.g. HIV/AIDS-awareness T-shirts) to identify peer educators, and educational resources (e.g. HIV/AIDS toolkits) to assist in education sessions; the mine also holds an annual function which recognises ‘Best peer educator of the year’.
The success of AngloGold Ashanti’s overall peer educator programme is currently difficult to gauge, since proper monitoring mechanisms are not yet in place. However, as from 2005 peer educators will be obliged to submit monthly progress reports to their respective regional co-ordinator, in an effort to establish the effectiveness of peer education.
7.5 Peer education at AngloGold Ashanti in 2004
C22
COMMUNITY
Formed in 1995, following the closure of the Ashanti Morro Velho lower level operation, the Nova Lima Development Agency was one of AngloGold Mineracao's first formal community development initiatives.The partnership was formed with the town authorities, the local Commercial Association, SEBRAE (Support to small size business, a non-governmental entity sponsored by the Industry Federation) and two mining companies, AngloGold Ashanti Mineracao and Mineracaos Brasileiras Reunidas (MBR). Management was entrusted to the town authorities.
At the time of its closure, the Morro Velho mine in Nova Lima had been in operation for more
than 170 years, employing 7,000 people at its peak in 1975, and some 289 people at its
closure in 2003.
The first step in the process was a thorough analysis to identify potential business opportunities in the
region. The results showed Nova Lima had the potential to develop services such as hospitals,
universities and hotels owing to its proximity to the provincial capital Belo Horizonte. This presented
business opportunities for local inhabitants after mining ceased. Another area highlighted by the study
was the need for computer skills among the local population to be able to create a thriving services
sector. Out of this was born the SEBRAE Technical School of Management, which AngloGold Ashanti
Mineracao supports with several scholarships for underprivileged schools aimed at preparing local
students for business.
This joint effort has yielded positive results. Since the start of the project, Nova Lima has managed to
attract more than 84 new companies, such as hospitals, hotels, food service enterprises and
university facilities, which have generated 6,000 new jobs. A local Peoples Bank was also formed for
the purpose of offering credit to small businesses. As a result, more jobs have been created,
reinvigorating the local economy. The construction of a highway leading to town is nearing
completion, again improving its prospects of attracting new investors
.
In Sabara, where currently the company's primary operation – the Cuiaba Mine – is located, a similar
development agency was formed in November 2003. Although still in its infancy, the Agency Council
has been set up and is jointly managed. An analysis of the business sector needs – similar to the one
undertaken at Nova Lima – is currently being completed. Similarly, based on its Brazilian experience,
the group has initiated a development agency in southern Patagonia in Argentina, home of the Cerro
Vanguardia mine. A partnership has been formed in that region with the local provincial authorities to
create the San Julian Development Agency. San Julian is the closest town to the mine and its
economy is greatly influenced by mining, with the declining fishing industry as a secondary source of
income.
In the towns of Crixas and Santa Barbara in Brazil where Serra Grande and Córrego do Sítio are
situated, talks have been initiated with the authorities and like-minded companies and agencies to
implement development agencies in these regions.
What is very different about these latter initiatives is that the planning for the replacement of economic
activity (post mining) is being done at an early stage so that the mining operations may act as a
catalyst for economic growth. Based on the experiences gained at Nova Lima, the training and
development of local people is an important imperative.
7.2 Local community development a key issue for
sustainable development
Case Studies – Brazil