GBCHA launches ‘signature’ Annual Awards for Business Excellence

May 25, 2014 News

With the intention of recognising work done to improve health and wellness in the society, the Guyana Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBCHA) has issued a call for suitable entries to be entered into its 2014 Annual Awards for Business Excellence.
The signature event was officially launched on Thursday simultaneous with a campaign to expand and strengthen collaboration between the business sector and non-governmental organisations to help sustain the fight against HIV/AIDS.

GBCHA’s Chairperson Tracey Lewis

Speaking at the forum at the Kingston, Georgetown, Demerara Distillers Limited, building, Chairperson of GBCHA, Tracey Lewis, said that the Annual Awards “is an unparallel opportunity to publicly recognise the unique and vital contributions made towards health and wellness by the business community.”
She said that GBCHA has deliberately modified categories of the annual awards this year, to acknowledge and support the work of the Business Sector in responding to other areas of health and wellness. Previously, awards were focused on the contributions made to tackle mainly HIV/AIDS.
Moreover, this year the Awards for Business Excellence on health and wellness are expected to focus on Workplace Programmes, Community Investment and Individual Leader relating to a wide cross section of issues.
In the category of Workplace Programme the award will seek to recognise programmes which benefit employees by providing information, training, referrals and distributing of prevention and other resources. And instead of merely focusing on HIV, the programme may be aimed at other health issues such as cancer, diabetes, among others.
The Community Investment category will recognise programmes that benefit the community and could be an extension of a Workplace Programme or a unique initiative focusing on health and wellness in the community. As such consideration will also be given to Community Programmes addressing violence prevention through education, sports, etc.
Awards for Individual Leadership will be classified in three separate categories – Workplace Peer Educator, Advocacy and Leadership and Media Action.
The Workplace Peer Educator Award will recognise a workplace peer educator who has gone above and beyond expectations to provide quality service to their colleagues in the workplace and/or community.
And a business leader who has made a significant contribution by consistently advocating on behalf of the business sector, key affected communities such as persons infected or affected by HIV and other health conditions, or persons affected by issues such as violence will be the beneficiary of the Advocacy and Leadership Award.
Meanwhile, proactive and intuitive contributions from a journalist from either the print or electronic media could be eligible for the Media Action Award. Entries in this category would have had to publish special articles or reports or standard news reports focused on Health and Wellness and Violence prevention.
Awards Entry forms are available on the GBCHA website www.guybizcoalition.org or at its Secretariat located at Lot108 Orange Walk, Bourda, Georgetown, and must be completed by 16:00 hours on July 25, 2014.
However, if additional information is required, persons can contact GBCHA via email at [email protected].
GBCHA is a registered non-profit organisation which works with the business sector, the Ministry of Health, international partners and Community Based Organisation to mobilize resources to assist in the National HIV/AIDS response.
Since launching in May 2008, GBCHA has expanded its mandate to address general health and wellness including gender based violence. Through human and other resources from its partners it has been seeking to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS and to prevent new infections.
This work is supported by the contribution of members’ annual subscription, fundraising events and donor funding for special projects and all activities are managed by the GBCHA Secretariat while oversight is provided by a Board of Director.
GBCHA, on Friday, celebrated six years of existence and according to Lewis the work aimed at helping to combat HIV/AIDS would not have possible “without our member companies, who continue to leverage resources to sustain prevention programmes, our partners and non-member supporters and our dedicated board of Directors and the staff of the Secretariat.”