Johannesburg, 15 Nov 2004
With Africa the epicentre of the AIDS pandemic, Sun Microsystems SA is taking its social responsibility duties seriously and is contributing to the fight against the deadly disease.
The company has donated training courses valued at over R100 000 to the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), a research unit of the University of the Witwatersrand and a division of the Wits Health Consortium.
Established in 1996, the PHRU is recognised nationally and internationally in the field of research and policy in mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Its focus has expanded to include treatment trials in adults and children for TB and HIV; prevention research; psychosocial research; training; advocacy and policy development. Recently, the organisation initiated SA's first HIV vaccine trials, and two years ago, its co-directors, Dr Glenda Gray and Prof James McIntyre, received recognition when they were awarded the 2002 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights.
According to Michael Holdsworth, senior data manager at the institution, the PHRU is a non-profit research organisation. "Our money comes in the form of research grants; however, the organisations that provide funding are reluctant to see the funds spent outside of research. Hence, very often the grants do not cover matters of infrastructure development like training," he says.
Within the last year, the PHRU purchased a SunFire 280r server running Sun's Solaris 8 operating system. "We use this Unix machine to run a clinical research data management software called DataFax. This software is used by several AIDS research organisations around the world, and was selected on the basis that we could then easily share research findings while ensuring complete patient confidentiality," says Holdsworth.
However, despite the advantages the PHRU enjoyed from the internationally standard DataFax software, it was struggling with limited Unix administration skills. "We made an appeal to Sun Microsystems SA to sponsor three staff members to attend Unix administration training courses - and were delighted at the willingness with which Sun agreed to participate," he continues.
Michelle Smith, head of Sun's Corporate and Social Investment, notes that the AIDS pandemic is a nationwide problem that will affect all businesses in SA - and around the world. "We didn't hesitate to contribute to the PHRU. The research that it is conducting stands to benefit every employer in the country - as well as those individuals unfortunate enough to be afflicted with this dread disease. Since technology plays a pivotal role in research, Sun was quite prepared to contribute," she says.
Holdsworth says the training, provided through Sun partner CS Holdings, has significantly improved the capability of the organisation to conduct its critical research activities.
"We wanted to have a data management arm that would be on par with our international counterparts. Most of our sponsors are international agencies from the US and Europe, and research data has to be handled according to strict standards as it can only be used if it has been managed correctly," he says.
Three of the PHRU's support staff received full Sun Solaris training, from an introduction to the operating system, to administrator level 1 and 2, and then further advanced modules. "By going on the training, we have beefed up our Solaris skills, which means when something happens, we have a team of three that can address the issues. It also gives us redundancy as we don't have to rely on just one person to administer the platform," says Holdsworth.
He believes the contribution of private companies is critical to address the problem of AIDS. "The epicentre of the AIDS pandemic is right here in SA and in sub-Saharan Africa. While our government doesn't have the issue as a top priority, it should be on the centre stage as it will have a devastating effect on our country, our people and the companies that do business here," he says.
Holdsworth says that while money is flooding in from international donors, very little has been forthcoming from the local business community. "We're delighted that Sun is prepared to help us further our mission to solve the AIDS issue - it is perhaps the company locally to contribute; it is in the interests of every company to follow Sun's example to help get the situation under control," he concludes.
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