Consulting Faytex, a sneek peak of the life: As you can see from the posts it has been a busy few month at the pad manufactury… Faytex is just not any other pad brand it is so much more. Not only are the pads safe for maternity & sanitary care… the mission is to aid to the advancement of women in Ghana! You might wonder if it is a social company? No it isnt. It is a private company with a purpose. Corporate Social Responsibility is an important part of the company but if there arent enough sales a part of the CSR cant be completed such as free donations. However through strategic partners menstrual hygiene management seminars and other social projects can still take place. Therefore Faytex values next to its customers and other stakehlolders - its partners so much. New partnership: The pad manufacturer has now made new partnerships with Power to Girls Foundation. This particular organisation is lead by an amazing, passionately gender oriented young woman named Aisha Addo. She is the Founder and main driver behind Power To Girls Foundation. The foundation aims to empower girls within the Canadian diaspora to believe in themselves and provide leadership and mentorship opportunities. Being of Ghanaian descent herself, she organises a lot of empowering events in Ghana. Due to the fact that Aisha is a real go getter and doesnt wait for change to happen but makes the change we partnered up with her. Day of the Girl : Ms. Addo had invited Faytex to Day of the Girl on Wednesday the 11th of October 2017 which is International Day of the Girl Child. This is the international observance day declared by the United Nations. The observation supports more opportunity for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide. This inequality includes areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, protection from discrimination, violence against women and forced child marriage. The celebration of the day also reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning and research. Many global development plans do not include or consider girls, and their issues become “invisible.” More than 62 million girls around the world have no access to education. Worldwide and collectively, girls between the ages 5 to 14 spend more than 160 million hours more on household chores than boys of the same age. The Day of the Girl helps raise awareness not only of the issues that girls face, but also what is likely to happen when those problems are solved. For example, educating girls helps reduce the rate of child marriage, disease and helps strengthen the economy by helping girls have access to higher paying jobs. Power To Girls collaborated not only with us but worked in partnership with Cross Roads International, The High Commission of Canada, Girls Education Initiative of Ghana and Women in Law & Development Africa. The conference took place in Osu Presbyterian Hall, Accra with motivational speakers such as Dr. Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings, MP (daughter of ex- President Jerry Rawlings, 1st President under the 4th Republic of Ghana and former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman) currently medical doctor and MP representing the Korle Klottey constituency. The conference was opened with the speech of Djifa Ahado, First Secretary of Development and Senior Programme Analyst for the Government of Canada - High Commission of Canada pledging that the Canadian Government is doing all it can to support girls. Interesting fact to know, is that it is Canada whom submitted a resolution to the United Nations for international recognition of Day of the Girl. The Fay International Ltd. marketing manager, Mary Achieng Ojuka, introduced menstrual hygiene management to the girls and distributed safe and healthy Faytex menstrual pads to the students of OPPS, St. Barnabas and Teshie Lekma. The celebration of the Day of the Girl was such a success that it made it into the Ghanaian Times a few days later. Philanthrophy Day: By participating in the Day of the Girl event we came in touch with GrubforSmiles. Another great initiative for women in Ghana. Together we participated in the Girl Project. A 100 percent philantrophic event for market women who carry their babies on their back called Kayayei. Faytex conducted interactive workshops on menstrual health management with physical demonstrations including how to apply and dispose of a sanitary pad. Faytex encouraged women to share their experiences with a varied amount of unsafe sanitary pads widely available in the West African market. Having come through their individual ordeals, they were encouraged to be familiarised with Faytex products. The day was a big success with a turn out of 200+ people. The women left the event enlightened and got a glimpse of their favourite actress and Faytex ambassador Rabby Bray. This is just a glimpse of the many ongoing projects. There is still so much more to do in order to make Ghana a better place for women. However, at Faytex is about making changes one step at a time. Touching the life of women through sanitary and maternity pads should become the motto. If you are interested in helping women in Ghana - soon I will announce how you can help ! If you cant wait and have your own ideas mail me! francine.carron@gmail.com Check : www.faytexsanitary.com
International Day of a Girl Child The past few times that I have written on my blog, I started with the words: …. Its been a while that I have posted but I am going to take it up again… and I failed. So this time around I am not going to begin like that. I dont even remember how I was sometimes able to post daily such long articles…With age I must have gotten slower (laughing to myself right now) I actually waited to this date specifically to announce the new title of my blog that better reflects the work I do today. Today it is International Day of a Girl Child and the company I am currently consulting for empowers young girls. Hence the choice to publish a revamp specifically today! Three years ago I started with the blog microfinancemasala. It covered my work as a microfinance branch manager and expert (volunteer) trips to North and East Africa relationg to microfinance, business development, labour unions and entrepreneurship. Two years in the position I left and began working independently as a financial inclusion consultant. However, financial inclusion related matters arent my only capabilities. I have plus 12 years of experience in business development for SME’s, corporation, NGO’s, INGO’s and labour unions. I consider myself a global manager with expertise in financial reporting, PR & (off)online communications, marketing, sales, staff development, governmental affairs, strategy development, community management and menstrual hygiene management. I am a professional with a purpose. In order to reflect my capacities better and the consultancy I provide I changed the name of my blog from microfinancemasala to The Inclusion Masala! This means financial inclusion, general management, corporate affairs, community management, business development and gender management. This summer I even worked as a on site general manager of Magritte Knokke Heist. A virtual reality art pop up on the beach in Belgium. My tasks covered everything from staff management, event management, adminstration, customer relations to financial reporting and so on. I will defenitely post some pictures about this later but what I have been dying to talk about is the current consultancy. Like I said professional with a purpose ! I am currently being a (consultant) corporate affairs and community manager for Fay International ltd. They are the sole producers of safe and sanitary pads in Ghana, West Africa. I emphasize the words safe here as these pads do not contain any chlorine, dioxine, plastics, rayon, laytex or other chemicals. With these pads girls arent allowing dangerous chemicals to enter their bodies and develop cancers. Due to the organic cotton in the pads, they are very friendly for tropical weather. No more itching and scratching due to the heat and laytex touching your skin. I have tried them myself and they are so soft. (You would want to wear them all the time just to feel the softness.) These pads are produced under the brand name Faytex in Accra. The factory is mostly completely made up of women and was founded by a woman. The mission of the company is to provide safe and affordable healthcare to all the regions in Ghana. Safe as their are too many dangerous foreign substitute on the market and affordable as many of the Ghanian girls cant afford pads. Period. Through their corporate social responsiblity program: Faytex finds it their duty to englighten young girls in menstrual hygiene management. There is a high level of absenteism in schools due to taboos around menstruation, improper explanations and just the fact they cant afford sanitary pads. Therefore, together with senior leadership I am developing strategies to exectute their social cause and make Faytex accessible across Ghana. One program that we are currently rolling out is the Faytex Ambassador program. This program will allow young girls to enhance their own leadership skills by teaching their peers menstrual hygiene management. As one knows from my microfinacemasala blog (articles remain available) on this blog, everytime I work on a new project I am completely devouted and passionate about it! No more posting everyday but defenitely every month. (and hopefully more) Lets celebrate this new project with me and more importantly International Day of the Girl because nations that take care of their girls will prosper! Help me empower girls! Today we stand (actually everyday) against sexual harassment, equal rights for girls, proper menstrual hygiene management, education and bringing girls on top! I Quote: “If girls are empowered as much as boys in technology - we can make a lot of progress”!@unwomen P.S: picture of myself (3rd child from the right with the white sweater & white scrunchy) in 2nd grade at the all girl school - Onze Lieve Vrouw Presentatie in Boom, Belgium. Now the town of Tommorowland ;)