Achieving New Milestones with WeCare and WeCare Plus in 2022

In 2021, The Centre’s WeCare Family-Friendly Workplaces Programme was embraced by 16 international companies and implemented in 62 supply chain factories and farms in four key sourcing countries. These programme created positive across multiple worker wellbeing and child rights issue areas, including enhancing the parenting and communication skills of 3,424 parent workers through training, and providing 551 children with free access to childcare during the summer school break near their parents’ work, to name but a few examples. For the factories and farms that took part, other benefits included increased worker satisfaction, retention, efficiency, and more. 

Click here for more details about the 2021 WeCare programme’s impact and achievements.

What is WeCare? 

WeCare is a package of services tailored to meet the needs of parent workers, young workers and workers’ children, while also responding the business needs of suppliers. WeCare services include support for parent workers, responsible recruitment, childcare provision, parenting skills, maternal health and breastfeeding, support for young workers including juvenile workers, flexible working arrangements and other relevant well-being issues. 

New Milestones in 2022

The Centre is excited about the year ahead for the WeCare programme, as we anticipate reaching new milestones in 2022. One of those milestones will be the opening of the 100th Child Friendly Space (CFS) and seeing dozens of suppliers run CFS for the eighth year. We’re also looking forward to continuing supporting parent workers and their children in challenging contexts like agriculture. Last year we debuted a tent-based Child Friendly Space on a farm in Turkey that served as a much-needed and loved safe space for the children of migrant agricultural workers and Syrian refugees. The space not only provided a safe space and disincentivised very young children from spending the day in harsh outdoor conditions, it became a platform for fostering empathy and cohesion among different ethnic groups. 

Another milestone this year will be the debut of our WeCare Plus programme, which introduces new gender equality components. These gender components include:

• Creating strong maternity protection support 

• Strengthening awareness of and prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace 

• Establishing breastfeeding rooms 

• Parenting training specifically for fathers 

How to get involved

WeCare and WeCare Plus can be implemented year-round, but the Child Friendly Spaces component takes place over the summer when schools close, with onboarding typically beginning in April/May. The Centre is hosting an awareness webinar for interested suppliers on March 3 and 9 (hosted in Chinese). Click here for more information and to access the registration link. 

To learn more about the general WeCare programme and how to take part, please don’t hesitate to email us to set up a call.