A unique foundation helps factories lift the quality of their clinics
1 February 2017.
Port au Prince – Share Hope, a social enterprise aiming to provide ethically sourced products for the apparel industry, launched a new initiative in 2016 targeting factory clinics. Eleven factory clinics participated in the programme that involved regular assessment, training factory nurses on various health issues as well as clinic procedures, standards, and data collection.
A quarterly award was given out for the best performing factory during each assessment. Two additional awards were assigned for the overall best clinic and the clinic which improved the most overall over the course of the project. All award winning factories received a US$ 500 reduction on their 2017 BWH subscription fee. An award ceremony is scheduled for 8th March 2017.
Workers, as well as management, welcomed the initiative. It helped factories improve their clinics and guided nurses to develop better health protocols and offer improved medical assistance to the workers.
Currently, Share Hope is looking into ways to expand this program in the New Year. The factory clinic improvement program was co-financed by the Levi Strauss Foundation. Share Hope runs several workers’ well-being initiatives in Haiti’s garment sector; a high school completion program, the HERhealth program and speech therapy and communication classes for deaf and hard of hearing factory workers.
Better Work Haiti is funded by the United States Department Of Labor (USDOL).