It started with my morning shower. I woke up to a small lizard who refused to scurry out when I turned on the water. As my friend Natalie commented "at least you weren't lonely." That's one way to see my reptile company.
It's an action packed day for the employee volunteers. We started off with Liz O'Neill the SVP of product development and sourcing for Levi Strauss & Co., Michael Kobori, VP of Sustainability and Kim Almeida program manager for the Levis Strauss Foundation describing how the improving worker well-being program began, the pilots we've tested in countries beyond Haiti. We discussed the success of the Haiti program - particularly the financial literacy trainings. Partnering with a local NGO - Community Enterprise Solutions along with our partner GrupoM we have taught hundreds of factory workers about savings, budgets and ways to plan financially. The story of the factory sweeper who went through the program and saved enough to add an addition to his home was a powerful example of how these simple but effective programs can change the likes of the workers in the factories.
Our factory hosts GroupoM - Mercedes Capellan de Lama founder and executive of the GroupM Foundation described the long range plan for growth and expansion. Some of the projects on the list include the construction of a cook's kitchen to provide a sanitary and healthy place for the 7,000 factory workers to buy and eat their breakfast and lunch.
Mercedes explained some of the accomplishments achieved so far including the day care center that cares for fifty worker's babies. She shared that only those who belong to the factory's pregnancy club, who participate in the onsite health classes and who pay a nominal fee are given the chance to have their infants cared for by educated counselors and fed, bathed and diapered regularly. Honestly, it's a luxury. And it's expensive. The factory is still grappling with how to continue to fund the diapers. Any ideas?
We got our employees out of the Codevi conference room and walking around checking out the factory grounds. We straddled the Haitian and Dominican Republic border. We stopped for a photo by the conference room Levi Strauss built of sludge. We spied the health clinic and the onsite TV/radio station and we crossed the bridge over the Massacre River that separates the town from the factory. That's where the contrast is jaw dropping. In the river are the Haitians washing clothes and collecting water. It's where dogs and chickens and naked babies roam. It's where the lunch is prepared for the factory workers and it's where hundreds of Haitians wait for the opportunity to try and get a job at the factory. Really, you have to be here to truly experience it.
After lunch we got down to business and our employees set out to sew their own pair of 501s. Yes, that's right we set up a sewing line to stitch the arcuate, nail some rivets and get that two horse pull patch onto the waistband. It's so much harder than you can imagine. Fortunately, the GrupoM factory workers took over and the final product will look like the premium product we are known to produce.
But there's more.
Our afternoon included presentations from the two NGO partners on the ground in Haiti helping us to deliver our financial literacy programs and build empowering local business solutions along with health programs educating the factory workers on the importance of clean drinking water, sanitary health habits, reproductive health and prevention of sexual diseases. Thanks to Community Enterprise Solutions and Sharehope for helping to build programs that meet worker needs, involve input from GrupoM and further our mission of improving the lives of the workers manufacturing our produce.
As a final group activity, our Community Enterprise Solution partners gave us a task. We divided into groups to create a "tippy tap". It's a simple but very effective way of creating a hand washing system to promote sanitation and cleanliness. Our luck provided two incredibly resourceful volunteers in our group Britteny Skaggs from Kentucky and Brandy Huff from Mississppi. Both pulled the projects to the finish line and created workable sanitation systems. We will now recreate these systems in Ouanaminthe schools tomorrrow.
Our night ended with a dinner under the stars of Codevi with fabulous food (healthy portions of green veggies!) and enough dessert for everyone. And much conversation on how to build on what we saw today. How do we measure impact? What works in the vendor community and how do we present the metrics that matter most to them? And how do we get more diapers to that daycare?
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