PSI assisted Coca-Cola in designing the workplace HIV/AIDS prevention program that will be used by Coca-Cola bottlers that employ about 65,000 people across Africa. PSI was already assisting the Coca-Cola affiliate in Zimbabwe with a workplace HIV/AIDS prevention program when The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation asked it to design a continent-wide program. PSI has been implementing HIV/AIDS prevention projects in Africa since the mid-1980s.

"PSI is pleased to be a part of this important effort and we believe that Coke's workplace HIV/AIDS prevention program will be a model to be emulated by other multinationals doing business across Africa," said PSI Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa William Warshauer.

The new expanded healthcare benefits program is one of the most extensive business-initiated HIV/AIDS efforts to begin to roll out in Africa; it is a result of extensive discussions and planning over the past year to form a partnership between The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, PharmAccess International and PSI. The estimated costs of this initiative to The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation will be between US $4m and $5m per year.

Through the bottler's existing benefits program, the expanded healthcare program will offer access to anti-retroviral drugs to the employees and spouses of any Coca-Cola bottler that chooses to participate.

The first bottler(s) to deploy the program are in Egypt, Morocco, Burundi, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Reunion, Angola, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa (some), Uganda, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia. Given some of the infrastructure challenges, it will take up to 12 months to fully roll this out in these countries. These bottlers have already put in place extensive policies regarding HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness which continues to be the area of focus. The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation will work with other bottlers in Africa to expand the number of those participating in the healthcare program over the next year.

Coca-Cola has worked with a wide range of non-profit groups to support HIV / AIDS programs across Africa. These include Kenya's National AIDS Control Council to support its Maisha (Life) education campaign; and have supported Hope Worldwide Men as Partners campaign in South Africa, which encourages men to take responsibility for the fight against AIDS.

Coca-Cola Africa has provided its 1,200 employees in Africa with comprehensive healthcare benefits, including full antiretroviral drug coverage since June 2001.

Since June 2001, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation has worked in partnership with UNAIDS and focused on three aspects of the fight against AIDS: developing AIDS prevention, education and treatment programs in local communities; employing Coca-Cola's marketing expertise to develop public awareness and information campaigns; and implementing model human resource practices for employees of Coca-Cola Africa.

"No single organization can stand up to AIDS alone, but Coca-Cola Africa and its bottlers are determined to do their part," said Alexander B. Cummings, Chairman of the of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and President of Coca-Cola Africa. "We are proud to work with our bottlers to provide access to a program that can help them offer their employees and spouses the HIV/AIDS related care they need. This disease has no cure so we must focus our attention on education and prevention to help reduce the rate of new infections. We will also continue to work with governments, healthcare organizations, non-profit groups and others to see that Africa progresses in its struggle against AIDS."

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