Reckitt Benckiser joins hands with Lanka Business Coalition for AIDS awareness program

Durex’s brand purpose is to give people everywhere the freedom to live and love. Front‐of‐mind awareness of HIV and AIDS has decreased rapidly in the last 10 years, despite the fact that HIV transmission is still an issue everywhere in the world including Sri Lanka, eroding the freedom to live and love. Because the vast majority of HIV infections happen through sexual contact, Durex has a key role to play in driving global awareness of the issue and helping prevent HIV transmission. Durex’s ultimate challenge is to help achieve a HIV‐free generation.

With this global motto of Durex, its marketer Reckitt Benckiser joined hands with Lanka Business Coalition for HIV and AIDS (LBCH) as their ‘Strategic Partner’ to work towards creating awareness. LBCH has been one of the key driving forces in creating awareness on HIV and AIDS in Sri Lanka. By passing on the ‘pillow of awareness’ to Managing Director Rahul Murgai,. Reckitt Benckiser LBCH expressed its partnership with Reckitt Benckiser to generate awareness on HIV and AIDS jointly with Durex in Sri Lanka.

The cushion was passed onto Murgai, who states that “Reckitt Benckiser, marketers of the world’s leading sexual wellbeing brand Durex is proud to join hands with LBCH as the strategic partner for working towards passing awareness and not HIV/AIDS. Globally, Durex is very active in working towards prevention of STD’s such as HIV and AIDS by promoting safe sex practices. In Sri Lanka too we want to take the same initiative as a responsible corporate citizen.”

The campaign, which was launched in January by LBCH, seeks to highlight the importance of creating awareness on HIV by passing on a bright red cushion inscribed with the message ‘Pass on Awareness, not HIV’ among LBCH’ 60-member corporate network, which includes leading conglomerates in the island. The red cushion is symbolic of the local corporate community’s commitment to drive the campaign’s efforts of generating awareness in the workplace and help the nation abate the spread of the disease.

Describing the partnership, Head of Marketing Tansim Reswan said “We are planning to conduct many initiatives to help create awareness about HIV/AIDS and in doing so, we will be sharing our expertise in driving the campaign forward.” The collaboration with LBCH, ties in with both organisations’ efforts to join together to strengthen the cause and therefore create a larger impact in the community.

Present at the event to pass on the pillow was LBCH current Chairman Dr. Kishu Gomes, who stated in this regard; “As business leaders, we must recognise and highlight the importance of creating AIDS awareness and seek measures to mitigate this issue among our eight million-strong workforce. The nation’s economic growth is woven around tourism, foreign employment, trade, and exports-related travelling, to name a few; hence our workforce has become highly vulnerable. The triple bottom-line focus with adequate attention to people is the way forward and we need to protect our people if we are to honour our commitment as business leaders.”

In recent years, HIV/AIDS has emerged as an issue which has a serious impact on the corporate landscape. According to statistics, nine out of 10 people living with HIV and AIDS globally are in the workforce, which if not addressed, will threaten workplace productivity. The projected cumulative loss of the labour force due to AIDS by 2015, is estimated to be a staggering 74 million. It is crucial to note that through awareness; two thirds of new infections can be prevented. As the number of persons living with HIV reported in Sri Lanka is on the rise, with approximately two new HIV cases reported every week, there is a need to recognise the magnitude of the issue and make a concerted effort on spreading awareness to mitigate the threat. Senior Brand Manager Ahmed Aroos explaining the initiative mentioned that “Promoting safe sex practices such as using condoms will certainly be a part of the agenda as we know protected sex can curtail the spread of this deadly disease to a greater extent.”