HIV/AIDS Workplace and Local Community Education Programme - India

Driving this programme is commitment to assisting and providing job opportunities to disadvantaged people, including those living with HIV/AIDS. A non-discriminatory policy supports efforts to actively employ people living with HIV/AIDS who would otherwise be unable to find employment. Teddy's founder and managing director Amanda Murphy explains that following through on this commitment: "wasn't as easy though, we had to overcome a lot of institutional and societal prejudices." As a result of its commercial relationship with The Body Shop International, Teddy Exports was provided with technical assistance to develop an HIV/AIDS workplace programme. Workers receive free medical care and a subsidised lunch and tea in the company canteen. As part of the programme, there is also a pension scheme and a system of housing loans.

Through the Teddy Trust, the company also directs a percentage of its profits to support community welfare in the form of projects that include:

• AIDS Awareness Project: HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns for people in the local villages, using street theatre and puppetry as a way of communicating the message to a largely illiterate audience. The campaign has also addressed students in over 100 schools and colleges.
• Healthy Highway Project: two 'truckers booths' on the main highway to southern India and one at an oil refinery unit at Manila provide information on HIV/AIDS and prevention to over 80,000 truck drivers (a significant vector of HIV) through street plays, slide shows, leaflets, stickers, and condom distribution. The street shows and the anonymous nature of the assistance are part of a strategy to encourage the truck drivers to seek the low-cost treatment and counseling that is provided.
• Women in Prostitution Project: HIV/AIDS awareness, medical assistance, and counseling provision for commercial sex workers in southern Madurai, using peer educators. The project team works with a network of commercial sex workers, pimps, and their clients to promote condom use through education and innovative strategies for condom carrying by the commercial sex workers.
• The Teddy Community Health Centre: provides low-cost or free health care, particularly to women and children and passing truck drivers. Antiretroviral drugs (AZT/3TC) are provided to 20 HIV/AIDS patients through Teddy’s Care & Support Project.

This company's approach to raising awareness through communication is reflected in related Teddy Trust projects, too. For example, the Teddy School opened in 1994 and upgraded to the intermediate level; it now has over 450 pupils (aged 5-16) and 20 teachers. Its library includes over 5000 books as well as television and digital video capabilities. Specially trained staff at the Day Care Centre cater to children with special educational needs; these children are integrated into mainstream schooling at the Teddy School. Non-formal evening classes are held for local children who are sent to work by their parents during the day and cannot otherwise go to school. In addition, veterinary camps are organised to help train local farmers in basic veterinary care and animal husbandry.

HIV/AIDS, Children, Women, Reproductive and Sexual Health.

The company is based in Tirumangalam, a town on the main route to southern India. Truck drivers use the town, which is home to a large number of commercial sex workers, as a stop-off point for refreshments and entertainment. Organisers suspect that this has contributed to the high rates of HIV/AIDS in the area.

Teddy Exports employs almost 350 local people; in 2005-2006, its products grossed £1.5 million. These products for export across the world include massage rollers made from a sustainable, local wood source (acacia nilotica). There is a tree-replanting scheme in place. Employees also make boxes from rubber wood, bags, and textile and other wooden items.