CCWU (Clerical and Commercial Workers Union) has announced that the 18 months HIV/AIDS sub-project, in which it collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the World Bank, concluded last September 28.

Coordinator, Mr. Sherwood Clarke said participants were presented with certificates of appreciation at a recent closing ceremony.

The union had received a total of some $2.9M as implementing partner and, for the duration, the activities included an awareness march and workshops for employees of the various companies at which CCWU has representation.

Clarke said a number of the employers adopted the HIV/AIDS workplace policy since the project began and the main focus was on ways of contracting the diseases, prevention, voluntary counselling and testing, behavioural change, stigma and discrimination.

He said the objectives included promoting stigma free HIV/AIDS workplaces and foster the development of them and he believes they were met, because union members were educated through a series of seminars.

Clarke reported that they were also encouraged to become aware of their status and responded positively.

He said CCWU organised at enterprise level and, with a membership base of 2,000 workers, implemented workplace HIV/AIDS programmes in collaboration with the Health Sector Development Unit and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Clarke said other aims were to develop workplace policies on HIV/AIDS awareness for all workers, condom promotion and distribution and facilitating voluntary counselling and testing.

“It is now well recognised that, to reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic, trade unions need to be involved in an active way to help members in the fight against the deadly disease and employers have to implement HIV awareness programmes in different sections of the workplaces,” he said.

According to Clarke, the Guyana HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project under the Ministry of Health, has assisted in developing a trade union perspective of the epidemic and developed strategies to implement prevention and care programmes involving various stakeholders.

CCWU was tasked, as well, by the Ministry of Health, the Health Sector Development Unit and the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS), to train pre-educators and managers on the workplace policies and HIV/AIDS programmes. (Nathalene DeFreitas)