— gathering told at fourth anniversary celebrations
THE GUYANA Business Coalition for HIV and AIDS (GBCHA), launched on May 30, 2008, celebrated its fourth anniversary last Wednesday, building upon the foundation of three years of solid collaboration under the first phase of the Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention (GHARP) project. Supported by PEPFAR, the project brings together partners from the Government of Guyana (GoG), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and other national and international organisations, with a mandate to enhance private sector response to the HIV epidemic.
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Md. David Bhola, said the mission of the GBCHA is: “To mobilize and assist the private sector in their response to HIV/AIDS in the workplace and beyond by facilitating technical assistance; as well as helping organisations identify and apply their core competencies, products, services and resources to assist in the response to HIV/AIDS.” This, he said, has been done to date, “with a high degree of efficiency.”
Mr. Bhola is also a senior staff member of the Neil and Massy Group of Companies.
Reflecting on the accomplishments to date, and addressing the way forward, Executive Director, Ms. Suzanne French took pride in reporting that the GBCHA has been working assiduously towards realizing its mandate. And faced as it is at this time with a cutback in funding, to continue working with verve and the firm resolve to be able to continue offering service of a high quality to its target groups.
The coalition targets primarily private sector employees in the workplace, as well as persons in the communities in which it operates. Among its wide scope of activities, the coalition focuses on HIV prevention, and on offering voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) outreach and information sessions to its target population. Additionally, the GBCHA continues to use the workplace to reduce stigma and discrimination, cognizant that people spend most of their time in that setting.

Other areas of responsibility include:
* Training of employees as peer educators
* Facilitation of awareness sessions on HIV and other related issues
* Provision of educational materials and other HIV prevention resources
* HIV counselling and testing at the GBCHA Secretariat, and on company sites upon request
* Facilitation of partnerships among member companies and other agencies

With a team of dedicated staff members and volunteers, matched by unstinted support of private sector entities, much has been accomplished over the years, the director said. Testimony to this is the work accomplished in 2011, as outlined by Chairman of the Board of Directors of the GBCHA, Mr. David Bhola.
Using 2011 as a model year, Bhola said that for that year, the GBCHA Secretariat alone, which has now become a permanent testing site, tested a record number of 4,000 clients – the highest number of clients tested in a single year. Through the initiative,
endurance and hard work of its members and volunteers, another 1,000+ employees were reached in the workplace during 2011.
The sessions were conducted by CHBA staff members and partners, as well as trained employees within the organisations, in keeping with the mandate to facilitate technical assistance to strengthen workplace programmes and policies.
That apart, the GBCHA highlights the work of members in their communities, and assists in building partnerships among private sector members and other organisations.
Meanwhile, Executive Director, Ms. Suzanne French, commenting on the successes achieved and maintained to date, asserted: “Our successes have not come without challenges… More recently, there have been many opportunities for evaluation and for planning towards sustainability of the GBCHA.”
The secretariat, with offices located at 108 Orange Walk, Bourda, has been supported by the Ministry of Health and by USAID/GHARP since its inception. With the closure of the USAID project in Guyana in March 2012, it has faced some challenges, namely a reduction in staff complement, salary abatement in some areas, and a reduction in the hours of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV — previously offered daily from 9:00hrs to 17:00hrs. That service has since been reduced to two and a half days per week.
Albeit, through the generous support of the GBCHA members and the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS), the site remains open, Ms French said. She expressed gratitude to the stakeholders, approximately 50% of whom are private sector entities; but commented, “The investment of the private sector is grossly under-reported in terms of their support to NGOs and the Ministry of Health’s programmes.”
Ms. French, who said the GBCHA has 46 members, is convinced that the members are passionately committed to the ongoing success of the coalition. She acknowledged that the private sector has been offering generous support – cash and in-kind – towards sustaining the programme.
And alluding to the effects of cuts in funding on the CHB, she noted that even secretariat staff had been adversely affected, notably by reduction in staff complement and in some cases, a reduction in salaries.
“But whilst our services have been reduced, it is only for this period, as we continue to look at ways in which to maintain the quality of services we provided previously,” Ms French affirmed. She said the GBCHA is brainstorming ways to sustain the level of support it has been offering to the communities.
“Rest assured the GBCHA is working to restore the service to that which clients are accustomed.”
French said that, coming out of discussions with the Ministry of Health on the cutting of funding, the GBCHA was given assurance that it would be able to maintain some level of commitment to the communities in which it operates.
And commenting that the service provided is widely appreciated and sought after, she opined that this, to a great extent, is due to the quality of service provided, and the commitment of staff and volunteers to the people they serve.
The immediate challenge, in terms of operations, she said, is: “How best are we going to be able to maximize our now limited resources and still maintain our quality of work?”  She said that circumstances dictated that the GBCHA restructure in terms of its level of staff to be retained and the hours of VCT offered to clients seeking this service.

The GBCHA engages the private sector in four ways, namely:
* Workplace, through addressing stigma and discrimination, and the implementation of non-discriminatory workplace programmes and policies
* Core-competency: Through harnessing each individual company’s strengths, including products, services and resources, supply chain among other things – all with the aim of promoting action on HIV/AIDS in the community and beyond
* Community – developing collaborative partnerships between the private sector, government and community organisations, so as to strengthen the local and national response to HIV/AIDS
* Advocacy and Leadership:  Facilitating and promoting, within the private sector, the development of leaders who take a stand against stigma and discrimination while promoting action on HIV/AIDS in the workplace and community.