The Aurum Institute together with the North West Department of Health (NW DOH) and the mining sector officially launched the Tier.Net project at the Sibanye Stillwater mine in Rustenburg South Africa (SA) in a commitment to ensure integrated data collection and standardized monitoring and evaluation of TB and HIV programmes.
The launch took place on 23rd March 2023 and was attended by North West MEC for Health Madoda Sambatha, Deputy Minister of Health SA, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, Mr Vincent Spera, United States Consul General and Aurum Group Chief Operating Officer, Prof Dave Clark.
The Aurum Institute was created in the mining town of Welkom, in partnership with AngloGold, which sought to improve the lives of mineworkers and their communities.
“This is a special relationship for us, it feels good to be back where it all started, in an industry and community that feels like home,” said Clark.
The Tier.Net project aims to disseminate TB and HIV data between three facilities, Andrew Saffy Hospital, Karee Clinic and Eastern Plats Clinic within the Sibanye Stillwater district.
Louis Mathinya, Aurum Operations Director, who supports the project on behalf of Aurum said the exclusion of ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) data from Tier.net was recognized as a challenge for many years as HIV prevalence is a population-based calculation, and this data has always been excluded when providing a composite picture of the district.
The situation prompted a discussion between the sector, NW DOH and Aurum in the management of the ART programme to include the ART data into the Tier.Net. The Tier.Net installation project planning phase began in June 2022. Aurum supported the project with data capturers, training, and accommodation. The presence of the data capturers was to provide capturing of the historic data into Tier. NET. A total of 10 Aurum data capturers were requested to support the project.
The project will enable the mine management to manage patients systematically and thus ensure accuracy in the number of patients initiated on ART, due to Sibanye management and clinic facilities now being fully trained on the project system successfully.
Clark stated in his message of support at the launch event that most gains made in HIV prevention and treatment are because of a strong partnership between government, civil society, development partners and the private sector.
