Performance
During 2008, the PPM facilitated the accreditation of four community-based clinics as anti-retroviral sites, decentralising health services and allowing for HIV positive patients to be cared for in their communities. Xstrata Coal South Africa has assisted in the strengthening of health systems in all provinces and has built or upgraded wellness clinics and pharmacies at five of its sites.
This was supported by the training and development of a team of community outreach workers who visit community members’ homes to provide voluntary testing and to profile individual family needs and potential health risks. The PPM’s target of testing and counselling 1,750 people for HIV in 2008 was surpassed and 3,280 undertook voluntary testing during the year.
In 2008, Xstrata Coal South Africa’s role in the PPM was internationally recognised when it was awarded the inaugural Business Excellence Award for Expanded Community Programmes by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GBC). Xstrata plc Chief Executive Mick Davis gave a keynote speech at the awards dinner held in New York in June.