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Health and Human Resources
We provide assistance across a broad spectrum of health care delivery and human resource needs. This assistance can range from hospital and clinic designs and facilities management in Central Europe to creating human resource departments and training staff for companies in the Middle East. It can also include reforming social safety net programs in former command economies and training micro enterprises in Africa to cope with the impact of HIV/AIDS on their businesses, families and communities.
BizAIDS
An IESC Approach to Dealing with HIV/AIDS as it Impacts Economic Growth
In the past three years, we've implemented our innovative and high-impact BizAids program throughout Africa and in Papua New Guinea. We have applied BizAIDS in partnership with local and international public and private sector partners, including USAID, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, AUSAID, and multiple African organizations. For more information about IESC's BizAIDS methodology, click here.
- Program Goal/Purpose
- Services and Assistance
- Methodology
- Curriculum
Program Goal/Purpose
The goal of BizAIDS is to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS and other health-related crises on very small businesses, their owners, employees, families and the communities in which they operate. Areas of operation include rural, urban, and peri-urban.
The objectives of the BizAIDS program coincide well with the goals of PEPFAR and NACO, particularly in reaching out to at-risk communitites with accurate information and practical, sustainable survival tools for businesses. These objectives include:
- Assessing the business environments in which very small businesses operate and the services available to support them in dealing with HIV/AIDS;
- Training very small businesses to prepare for and manage the impact of HIV/AIDS on their businesses, employees, and families;
- Supporting access to Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) for program participants
- Ensuring sustainability of this unique access to information by training local trainers to deliver the program through local organizations/donors long after current program funding ends.
Services and Assistance
The BizAIDS approach is different from that of other HIV/AIDS programs. Our curriculum and methodology were designed and implemented by BizAIDS staff and IESC Volunteer Experts in Small Business. The program focuses on delivering practical information and assistance to very small businesses. Very small businesses participate in the program because it's marketed and geared toward their business needs and interests. Although participants receive BizAIDS's basic business training, they're also introduced to the concepts of HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment in an integrated manner and in a non-threatening environment. BizAIDS provides specific interventions that support long-term stability and growth to maintain jobs and expand employment opportunities. BizAIDS interventions are designed to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS within MSMEs and the community.
The BizAIDS Methodology
BizAIDS is a simple and practical training program. It doesn't require sophisticated costly equipment or elaborate venues. Whether held in a local business association, church hall or under a tree in a very rural village, BizAIDS training teaches practical tools to strengthen the operation of businesses, including employee training, financial record keeping and marketing tools.
- Identifying Local Partners: The process begins with the identification of local and national partners, often including business associations, chambers of commerce, business coalitions on HIV/AIDS, district health management teams, and local business services providers. These partners help facilitate trainings, promote HIV/AIDS awareness, and create linkages promoting business development.
- The BizAIDS Tool Kits: HIV/AIDS Tool Kits include a simply presented participant workbook (in English and in local languages), a trainer's guide, local resource materials, and a training program that combines the process of business planning; management planning; cross training employees; asset management, basic business training for staff; family and dependents and how to deal with HIV/AIDS and related risks in the workplace. Depending on the needs of the target community, the BizAIDS Tool Kit workbook and trainer's manual may be translated into the necessary local languages to make it more accessible to both clients and trainers.
- Training of Trainers (TOT): BizAIDS also identifies local candidates for training as Local Master Trainers in BizAIDS methodology. Once trained by VEs and BizAIDS staff, these Local Master Trainers help bring BizAIDS programming to local communities, capitalize on local and regional expertise, and strengthen program sustainability by creating a corps of local consultants capable of maintaining and achieving BizAIDS objectives after the end of the program. Local Master Trainers and IESC VEs work with local partner associations to identify potential program participants. We especially encourage association members to participate in order to strengthen themselves. MSMEs that are not members of an association are similarly encouraged to join to improve their access to similar programs and to further strengthen the association.
The BizAIDS Curriculum
- Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) provides counseling and testing services to participating MSMEs, their employees and family members.
- Business Planning explains the importance of cross-training, record keeping, asset management and planning for the future.
- HIV/AIDS Information & Workplace Training provides HIV/AIDS and health information including prevention, care and treatment, the importance of testing and counseling and available community resources.
- Legal Rights & Opportunities Assistance increases awareness of and provides assistance in the legal issues that business owners face regarding employees with HIV/AIDS
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