Family-Friendly Spaces Sharing Conference 2023: Pursuing the Global Ambition Together

To date, a total of 52 factories have participated in the Family-Friendly Spaces program, benefiting around 5,600 working parents and 5,500 children.During our hybrid sharing conference, held on the 29th of August, we reflected on the positive impact the program has had on stakeholders and invited a group of children who completed the FFS program to attend the conference.Our President & CEO, Carmel Giblin, and the General Manager of Heshan Astros Printing, Alvin Lai both celebrated the success of this year’s program in their opening remarks. Carmel shared that she was immensely proud of the FFS program’s success, noting that around 5,500 children have participated in the program since its launch in 2016, with 33 Chinese factories establishing a family-friendly space over the course of this year. She also underscored the positive impact of the program on various stakeholders, from helping factories to recruit new staff, ensuring stable supply chains, enabling working parents to spend more time with their children, and bringing about positive, long-lasting change for participating children.Alvin also acknowledged the success of the FFS program, highlighting the benefits of summer childcare for working parents. In his remarks, he shared his vision to implement a people-oriented workplace culture by drawing on the success of the FFS program to improve employee well-being and morale.Anita Lo, IETP's General Manager of Asia Operations, provided an update on the latest developments and key achievements of the FFS program. She also gave a brief introduction to this year’s new “Care Week” competition and invited some distinguished guests to present awards to this year’s prize-winners. “A total of 52 factories have participated in the FFS program since its launch, benefiting around 5,600 working parents and 5,500 children. We are very proud of this achievement”, said Anita. “The scope of the program has also expanded – initially, it was only open to children of migrant workers, but now local families are also able to participate. By providing childcare during the summer holidays, we have helped to reduce absenteeism among female workers.”This year’s “Care Week” included a Love Drawing Competition, ‘the Ambassador of Love’ Competition, and other teaching activities, aimed at encouraging children to develop a sense of gratitude and help people in need.During the awards presentation, a total of 7 children or their representatives were presented with first prizes, second prizes, third prizes, and the special prize for their participation in the Love Drawing Competition. Through a series of colourful and creative drawings, the children communicated their desire to help others and express their gratitude.Ellen Cheng, Corporate Social Responsibility Specialist from UNICEF China, praised the FFS program for its win-win outcomes and highlighted the benefits of establishing family-friendly workplaces for children, families, companies, communities and society as a whole. Fengqun Deng and Tao Li introduced the various activities organised by their factories over the course of the summer aimed at helping children to develop a sense of caring and responsibility.Xiaobing Zheng, Vice Union President from Dongguan Yuyuan Shoes Co., Ltd, highlighted how the FFS program has enabled working parents to spend more time with their children and receive support with childcare during the summer holidays, thus helping the factory to reduce unpaid leave rate and absenteeism.At the end of the conference, Carmel, our President & CEO, expressed her thanks to the sponsors and participants of the IETP Family-Friendly Factories (FFF) program and appealed for continued support to enable us to make a life-changing difference to hundreds of thousands of children of factory workers and deliver our goal of establishing 100 family-friendly spaces and supporting 30,000 children by the end of 2025.If you would like to learn more and support our FFF and/or FFS programs, please email join@ethicaltoyprogram.org to indicate your interest.