Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS

The creation of the Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS (ALAFA) was driven by humanitarian concerns as well as the need to make the industry sustainable in the long term by addressing HIV and AIDS in the workplace.

ALAFA has strong support from international and local businesses and has attracted significant international interest and funding. It is an example of a socially responsible initiative in the industry that is giving back to the people who are manufacturing the goods.  It is hosted by the Lesotho Textile Exporters Association, with government, industrialists, labour, brands and retailers, funders, donors and multinational organisations working together to combat the pandemic.

In 2005 the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) providing funding to design a strategy to address HIV and AIDS in the industry.  It was launched in 2006 when Gap Inc provided the seed money to pilot the programme in one of its approved factories. It is been rolled out to the entire industry with funding provided by various brands, retailers, and bilateral and multilateral donors.

The programme is holistic in that it provides education and prevention as well as treatment and care. ALAFA also works with factory management on policy around HIV and AIDS in the workplace. Since 2009, ALAFA has extended further and is offering voluntary testing and treatment to spouses of garment workers.

The project won the prestigious Drivers of Change Award 2008 for the Business Category last year. In presenting the award at a ceremony in Johannesburg, the judges said that ALAFA had been chosen "for its innovative sector wide public-private partnership that is showing how possible it is to protect key productive economic sectors in poor countries from the ravages of HIV and AIDS."

The project was also commended in the 2009 Business Excellence Awards of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 

For more about ALAFA, go to www.alafa.info