The South African Breweries (SAB) has delivered more than 800 000 condoms to taverns in the Tshwane and Odi districts over the last year and a half, using the company’s own beer delivery trucks and extensive distribution network.
SAB’s Waltloo and Ga-Rankuwa depots serve a total of 2641 taverns and deliver to each of them 400 condoms per month during normal delivery runs.
The condom distribution programme, Project Promote, is a public/private partnership between the National Department of Health (NDoH), the South African Business Coalition on HIV/Aids (SABCOHA), the Society of Family Health (SFH), the contract cleaning industry and SAB.
SAB’s involvement underlines the company’s commitment to helping reduce the number of HIV/Aids infections in South Africa by extending the national programme to non-traditional outlets such as taverns.
The reduction of HIV/Aids is one of SAB’s top ten Sustainable Development priorities and is aligned to the success and sustainability of the organisation.
SAB believes that South African communities and its business are indivisible; and the health and wellbeing of these communities is therefore an important component to its own sustainability as a business.
SAB’s 40 distribution depots across the country are used as Primary Distribution Sites where condom stock is stored and collected by SAB truck drivers for distribution during their scheduled delivery run.
The company expects to distribute a total of 845-million condoms to 16 000 taverns across South Africa over the next 5 years which has the potential to assist in averting more than 1.6 million new HIV infections. This is calculated according to a John Stover (founder and president of Futures Institute) study which claims that for every 500 condoms distributed, at least one new infection is averted. This indicates that condoms are highly effective in protecting individuals against contracting HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s).
To date, SAB has distributed more than 10-million condoms across South Africa– averting an estimated 20 000 new HIV/Aids infections.
This means that the current distribution of 807 800 condoms in Tshwane and Odi has potentially helped to avert 1615 infections.
SAB gets actively involved in addressing the socio-economic challenges facing South Africa and responds through a multi-stakeholder approach it believes has the ability to tackle issues most effectively.
“It is only when business, industry, government and other relevant organisations combine their knowledge, expertise and resources, that we have the best possible chance of making a real and tangible difference within communities by eradicating the problems that are eroding them.
“No single individual or organisation will effect change and we all have a role to play in effecting change, ” says SAB’s Corporate Affairs Manager for North Region, Refentse Shinners.
