Bidco oil refineries in conjunction with Nazareth Hospital, recently organized a Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) exercise among its employees at Thika factory premises. This was in line with the company slogan of promoting ‘Happy Healthy Living’ amongst its employees and other stakeholders by encouraging them to know their status and live a healthy positive life.
The campaign dubbed “Know your status” was aimed at encouraging employees to know their HIV/AIDS status in order to help them plan their life. The VCT counselors ensured that absolute confidentiality about employees status was observed while employees not be obliged to inform the employer regarding their HIV/AIDS status.
Other Benefits that employees derived after undergoing VCT included how to stay unaffected, how to stay longer if one even though one is infected, how to care for the infected and how to protect the unborn child when the mother is infected. Those who went through the exercise also learnt that better health contributes to higher productivity and incomes, while poor health contributes to poverty.
Bidco has trained 25 Peer Educators each of whom was picked for their approachability, openness and friendliness with the rest of the staff. The peer educators who are widely recognized as agents of behavior change at the workplace recently went through a refresher course to equip them with skills necessary for behavior modification, give them basic counseling skills and provide them with necessary communication skills.
The peer educators are involved in the provision of HIV/AIDS information, encourage staff to undergo VCT and distribution of condoms. To a larger extent the peer course has made positive impact not just with employees looking for information, but also amongst the peer counselors themselves who may have misconceptions about the disease and now view it differently. Bidco is committed to fighting HIV and AIDS in the workplace and by extension the community.
This year, Bidco has worked out a comprehensive program which will be implemented as the year goes by. Bidco has currently partners with Kenya Business Council, Nazareth Hospital and Thika District Hospital in HIV/AIDS related issues. Bidco has previously co sponsored events like International Women’s AIDS Run, World AIDS day and has also co sponsored related activities within Thika District
