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The group of people living with HIV/AIDS from Bangkok has received a multi-million baht order to supply 19,000 conference bags for the XV International AIDS Conference to be held in July 2004 in Bangkok and wants the Chiang Mai group to produce the bags for them at a reasonable cost. Finally the two agree on a mutually acceptable price and a deal is struck, marking the start of a new experiment to run a full-fledged business venture of, by and for people living with HIV/AIDS. Called the CPA Positive Marketing Company, the venture is part of a UNESCAP project to provide sustainable access to health care for people living with HIV/AIDS through a Pro-Poor Public Private Partnership. In a country already famous around the world for producing some of the most dynamic self-help groups of people living with HIV/AIDS, this new initiative is already bearing impressive results. Since the beginning of the project in September 2003, the company, run by a collective of around 500 people living with HIV/AIDS in Bangkok, has already generated profits of 45,000 baht (US$1,100) and through large orders like that for conference bags expects to add at least another 600,000 baht (US$15,000) to its profits by August 2004. “It is still an experiment but the signs are good. The big order for conference bags we received has given us a lot of confidence,” says Somchai Phromsombut, Chairman of the Bangkok-based Centre for People and Families living with HIV/AIDS (CPA), the self-help group behind the new company. Given the context of HIV/AIDS, the venture is not just about sales and profits. Alongside its income-generating activities CPA is also undertaking care, counselling and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS. It is also receiving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs as part of a Thai government programme to increase the free provision of such drugs to a targeted number of people living with HIV/AIDS around the country. Since the beginning of the project, 500 people living with HIV/AIDS, including 185 CPA members, have benefited from care and support services provided by the CPA under the project. As of March 2004 eight CPA members have been trained as health outreach workers, in collaboration with Medecins Sans Frontieres. Subject to need and capacity, another seven CPA members will be trained annually to support the health care services. A trainer-of-trainers programme is planned to allow CPA to support other groups of people living with HIV/AIDS in the same way. Thailand was Asia’s first country to be severely affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Today, thanks to far sighted government policies, Thailand is also a model for other countries in developing a comprehensive, multisectoral response to HIV/AIDS. And yet problems remain. In mid-2003, there were an estimated 670,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Thailand. However, by the end of 2003, only an estimated 23,000 people were on ARV treatment. As part of a progressive policy, the Thai Ministry of Public Health has promised to soon provide access to ARV treatment to all those who need it. The main problem anticipated is that not all those covered by the ARV programme will adhere to the treatment regime. The UNESCAP project is seeking to create a sustainable model of health care delivery to address precisely this problem. “There is a need for improved access to ARV treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries, and Thailand is one of the leading countries in the region in addressing this issue. But there are many issues to be resolved to make it workable. The project tries to find a way to support the Thai government’s policy on free access to ARV treatment,” says San Yuenwah, Chief, Health and Development Section, UNESCAP. Critical to the success of the project is support from civil society organizations such as the Nobel Peace Prize winning Medecins Sans Frontieres. MSF staff regularly train volunteers from CPA to become community health outreach workers. These workers not only help those on ARV treatment follow the drug regimen consistently, they also relieve staff at public hospitals of their enormous workloads by taking up counselling work with other people living with HIV/AIDS. “Doctors don’t have time to spend twenty to thirty minutes with patients counselling them on how to take ARVs, what the side effects will be and so on. This has to be managed by the nurses and the pharmacists. We have shown that by including the people living with HIV/AIDS themselves in such work, providing training and giving them the necessary tools, they can also help,” says Paul Cawthorne, Country Co-ordinator of the MSF (Belgium) mission in Thailand. For the private sector, which till now has only been a source of donations for HIV/AIDS causes, participating in the UNESCAP project’s income-generation scheme as an investor is a new experience. It has proved challenging to mobilise larger companies to break away from the more traditional forms of corporate social responsibility, such as in-kind and financial donations, which are becoming increasingly corporatized. However, several corporations have already joined in as investors in the CPA Positive Marketing Company. To them the new company is a sign that many people living with HIV/AIDS today no longer need mere char-ity and are ready to stand on their own feet and contribute to the cause of bringing their lives into the social mainstream. “What I expect and hope is that at the end of this project th ere is a viable group of people living with HIV/AIDS that will be producing products and services in a professional way. This will allow them to earn a living, improve access to health care and above all give a renewed sense of dignity and confidence,” says Dr Anthony Pramualratana, Executive Director, Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS (TBCA). For further information contact: Health and Development Section, UNESCAP at escap-healthdev@un.org. | |||||||||||||
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