Daily CSR
Daily CSR

Daily CSR
Daily news about corporate social responsibility, ethics and sustainability

Creating Factory Spaces That Are Family Friendly



08/23/2018

FFFS programme allows factory going working parents to leave their children in a safe environment that fosters learning and encourages playing.


Dailycsr.com – 23 August 2018 – Chinese families finds it common to be cut off from each other “for months at a time”, as many parents go to work in factories that are in big cities while the children are left behind in the villages, mostly with relatives, to attend their schools. In fact, the social system of China connects “schools and healthcare” with the “migrant worker’s home province”, so many children cannot accompany their parents when they “move to cities” for work. As the Asia-Pacific’s Responsible Sourcing Manager, Steven Campbell explained:
“In fact, many workers may only be able to go back to see their families once or twice a year”.
 
In the year of 2017, two main suppliers of Hallmark in Dongguan, China, namely QP and Golden Glory, came forward to deal with their issue of the social system termed as “left behind children”. In this endeavour they partnered with the “Family-Friendly Factory Spaces”, in short FFFS, programme which is sponsored by the “Ethical Toy” programme, the latter being a non-profit wing of the “International Council of Toy Industries”.
 
The FFFS conducts summer camps for the “children of the factory employees”, which allows the children to spend their time in a safe place playing and learning while their parents remain busy at work. This way, the children are kept far from the “manufacturing operations” under the supervision of teachers, while during break times or even post the working schedule the parents get to spend quality time with their kids. While Campbell added:
“It’s a really fantastic program. It provides a great opportunity for workers and their children to spend time together in a fun, playful, safe environment. Parents need to work to be financially stable for their families, and this program helps children to not feel left behind.”
 
The above mentioned programme of FFFS now runs in fourteen factories as over five hundred children are benefiting from it. Thanks to the programme the families have experiences “an invaluable impact” which provided a “safe and secure” place for the employees’ children. According to a parent, as mentioned in the ethicaltoyprogram.org website:
“Before the FFFS was launched, we would pity the children who were brought over to the factory because their parents had to leave them inside the apartments when they went to work due to concerns over their safety. After joining the program, employees can now go to work carefree, knowing their children are safe and cared for. The teachers here teach them arts and literature every day. They also get to play and interact with other children.”
 
Moreover, the factories are also experiencing a “positive effect” due to the programme, as Campbell informed”
“Both our own monitoring and reports from the Ethical Toy Program are showing improvements in retention rates among workers who participated, as well as improved trust and relationships between employees and management”.
 
For further information, please visit:
http://bit.ly/2017HallmarkSRR3BL
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com