Our people are our greatest asset, and as such we believe that job-related illnesses and injuries are unacceptable. As Golden Star’s success hinges on our teams we strictly assess our health and safety performance using a variety of measures and our performance guides the development of our safety and health programs. To access the safety, health, and well-being policy, please click here.
The safety and health of our employees remain paramount in all our decisions and our firm belief is that all employees should return home safely at the end of their work day.
In 2018 we commenced a major initiative to enhance our workplace safety including the development of our Safety Vision, Strategy and Safety Plan. In support of the plan, to date over 300 leaders in our business have successfully completed a leadership empowerment and development training program. Additionally, more than 150 members of the workforce have been involved in Golden Star’s Safety Standards workshops. These subject matter experts employed their experience and in-depth knowledge to advise management on the standards required to ensure their safety while working in high risk environments.
In 2016, a comprehensive health and well-being plan was adopted. The health outcomes have been remarkable, with considerable improvements in fitness for work management, and medical diagnosis and treatment, resulting in improvements in employee productivity and overall employee wellbeing.
Malaria is the single greatest cause of disease burden in Ghana and it disproportionally affects children and pregnant women. In our host communities, malaria represents around 60% of clinic attendance cases.
In Golden Star, we implement a malaria prevention program that incorporates spraying of residential areas, provision of personal protection equipment and repellents, and access to 24-hour testing and treatment at our mine site clinics.
In 2018, with the support of program partners, we shared over 5,000 long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets with our families and host communities. As a result of our ongoing efforts, we were recognized as a Malaria Safe Organization by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Our programs are paying off – in 2018 our malaria case rates were less than 5.5% of clinic attendance, translating to 0.35 malaria cases per workforce capita for less than 768 days lost to malaria illness.
Golden Star continues to support SDG 3 with implementation of a Behaviour Change Communication Strategy on the use of insecticide-treated nets and in 2019 joined the National Malaria Programme and other partner organizations in promoting this year’s World Malaria Day theme “Zero malaria starts with me”. Visit our blog to read more about this campaign.
Golden Star provides medical services as well as National Health Insurance Scheme coverage for all our employees and their registered family members.
As part of our CSR programs, we have built health centres at Akyempim, Nsadweso and Bondaye, Outpatients Departments at Ateiku and Prestea Government Hospitals, nurses’ quarters at Bogoso, and a mini-clinic for communities near our Bogoso plant site. Our Ladies Club has hosted 2 blood donation clinics.
Since 2010 we have undertaken collaborative health stewardship programs with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Ghana Health Service that combine a focus on strengthening national systems, and providing wellbeing and social programs for employees and communities. Following the successful evolution of these programs, GIZ, Golden Star and other partners have embarked on a land-mark initiative to pilot the provision of preventative health systems through national health structures. To support this we built and equipped Ghana’s first prevention health focussed community clinic at Akyempim.
Golden Star is a supporter of Project CURE (www.projectcure.org), which since 2003, has delivered 29 containers of medical equipment to Ghana, serving over 18 million people. In 2016/17 the Development Foundation supported Project CURE to bring $0.4 million in medical equipment to our catchments.
In 2015 and again in 2018, Golden Star and partners have brought the Project CURE Helping Babies Breathe program to our catchments. The provision of resources and capacity training for mid-wives/birth assistants in neo-natal resuscitation has resulted in tangible benefits: a reduction in neonatal death rate in the Wassa East District from 1.1% to 0.06% per 100 live births in just one year and a 25% reduction in Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality in less than a year!
Visit the Community page to learn more about our programs to enhance community health and well-being.