International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 20 June 2003
Pekka Reinikainen and Andrei Neacsu in Nairobi

Some of his work mates start openly avoiding him. Others whisper things about him behind his back. Gradually, Peter becomes isolated. As rumours gather speed, no one in the department seems willing to touch anything in Peter's immediate vicinity.

Peter's supervisor feels that the worsening atmosphere on the factory floor is harming his team's productivity. "Maybe we should just lay the man off to clear the air," the boss thinks.

There are millions of Peters in African workplaces carrying this invisible stigma and being discriminated against simply because of sheer ignorance of the basic facts about HIV and AIDS.

This imagined but real enough scenario was the starting point for one of the group exercises conducted as part of the first ever Red Cross Red Crescent Workplace Peer Educator training course in Nairobi.

The 20 participants included staff of the International Federation's Regional Delegation in Nairobi, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) and Nestl Kenya. Confronted with the above and other similar workplace scenarios, they had the task of intervening and defusing the situation as HIV/AIDS Peer Educators.

This training exercise was the final element of the Federation's Nairobi workplace programme, originally introduced on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2001. In addition to information and counselling, the programme provides access to adequate care, including antiretroviral treatment to staff living with HIV.

"The more intimate and personal things get, the more important it is for me to feel comfortable with the person I am speaking to," says 29-year-old Wallace Wachira, one of ten Kenya Red Cross Society employees who attended the training. "Surely using your own youth slang when explaining scientific facts to youngsters will get you understood."

Wallace has already been active in HIV/AIDS education through his local Red Cross branch and community in Thika, working with a number of youth volunteers affected by the disease. "I am attending this training because I want to make a difference at my own workplace," he explains.

"There is plenty of advice and information coming from experts, governmental agencies and civil society organizations. Our aim is to create straight lines of communication from person to person, starting with workplaces," says Dr Asha Mohamed, Director of the KRCS's Health Department.

Peer Educators could just as well be called Peer Counsellors. Providing people with accurate information is only one of their functions. Being able to listen and advise is equally as important.

As the name implies, a Peer Educator should ideally have the same level of responsibility within the company or community as the person requiring counselling.

Driving through the streets of Nairobi you notice that the city is full of billboards urging people to take voluntary HIV tests. Billboards are perfect for Western-influenced public information strategies, but Africa still relies on oral communication. As such, the peer education concept fits the continent's traditions perfectly.

In the 1980s, HIV/AIDS was unknown in the Kenyan countryside. Those who studied or worked in a city might have heard something about it û perhaps a person in their community who had died mysteriously after losing a lot of weight.

More information became available in the nineties, but society was still largely in a state of denial. As the pandemic spread, so did wild rumours: HIV/AIDS was a plot to wipe out black people, for example. But while society whispered, the Red Cross acted as pioneer in speaking out publicly about the HIV/AIDS issue.

"Even if roughly one in every ten Kenyans carries the HIV virus today, many still choose to ignore this state of affairs. We have districts in the country where more than a third of the population are infected," Dr Mohamed says. "We have to face reality with action instead of denying it. It is totally unacceptable to stand idle and observe the gradual disintegration of our communities."

Before introducing peer education to Kenyan business enterprises, the Red Cross Red Crescent family started by creating such programmes for its own staff. The Federation workplace programme has been practised since 2002.

"We started by sensitising our own staff to the fact that we are working alongside colleagues living with the virus. We made sure that they were given accurate information about HIV and AIDS. It was the request of the staff to train Peer Educators," explains Patrick Couteau, the Federation's regional Health and Care Advisor.

The Kenya Red Cross followed suit early this year. Along with Red Cross staff, there were, for the first time, employees from the corporate sector. In doing so, Nestl Kenya, was hoping to set the pace for other companies.

"The East African business community is beginning to tackle the question of HIV/AIDS in the workplace. Our International Federation is assisting Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the region to advocate such approach, since it is obviously in everybody's interest," says Asha Mohamed.

Today, any modern enterprise wants to be perceived as a "good corporate citizen" within its community. Facing up to HIV/AIDS in workplaces is all the more important for companies active in Africa because of the scale of the problem.

For Couteau, the arithmetic is simple: "Inaction costs more money to employers than a proper HIV/AIDS policy. Absenteeism, related medical expenditures, increased recruitment costs and training needs are tangible things. Any businessman can calculate their effect. A well informed employee is clearly more productive than one working in the midst of a fearful, uninformed environment."

"The message from my employers is crystal clear. Nestl Kenya wants to be among the first to address HIV/AIDS properly. We are all motivated to put what we have learned here to good use as we go back to our workplace," says Tabitha Ngotho.

Tabitha feels that two things emerged from the training: the need to clearly define existing corporate HIV/AIDS policy and to train more colleagues within her enterprise. And the ground seems fertile at Nestl Kenya: not only has it accepted the idea of peer education, it has already donated US$300,000 to enable the Kenya Red Cross to create and run a comprehensive training programme for corporate peer educators. The programme will eventually benefit any other interested company.

Bamburi Cement, a leading Kenyan corporation, has already embraced the same approach. In February, 18 Kenya-based French companies responded to the Red Cross's appeal and signed an HIV/AIDS Charter binding them to observe the dignity, health and safety of their employees.

Patrick Couteau is confident the Kenyan example will soon be taken up in other East African countries. "With their ability to reach individuals in even the smallest community, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies are well placed to advocate these innovative approaches to every actor in the society," he says.

The Uganda Red Cross Society publicly adopted its own workplace HIV/AIDS policy in May, while the Ethiopian Red Cross has just completed its first training of workplace educators in Addis Ababa.

It is estimated that more than 30 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV/AIDS - more than 3.4 million of them were infected in 2001 alone. In 16 African countries, at least 10 per cent of the workforce (that is, between 15 and 49 years of age) is infected with the virus.

The vast majority of Africans living with HIV do not know they are infected. Even where HIV/AIDS testing kits exist, few Africans are willing to take the test for fear of the stigma and discrimination it would entail.

In Kenya, more than 1.5 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses during the past two decades. There are 3 million more on the pandemic's death row, and they die at a rate of 700 per day. AIDS patients occupy 40 per cent of the country's 40,000 hospital beds.
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