Commissioning of the facility
Female employees of the Golden Exotics Limited (GEL) at Asutsuare in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region will no longer worry about their young ones’ access to education and caring for them while they are away at work.
Their employers, the GEL Banana Farms have taken a major step towards addressing a key concern that resulted in low female employment at the farm.
The Fairtrade Premium Committee of the company has provided relief for its nursing mothers by inaugurating a Ghc 735,847 fully furnished crèche and nursery and a $73,767 30-seater bus at the farm to care for and educate their 3month to 3year-old toddlers while they focus on their primary engagement with the company.
The handing over of the facility to the women was thus in fulfillment of a promise made to them as well as fulfill an important tenet of the charter of its mother company, Compagnie Fruitiere, and GEL’s own gender equity policy which aims among other things to provide a congenial atmosphere at the workplace for all women.
The inauguration of the project coincided with the company’s weeklong celebration of this year’s international women's day under the theme: “Improving the health and safety of our women workers at the workplace.’
The facility provides a significant opportunity for the womenfolk who would essentially remain in the organization and have access to reliable childcare for the business to benefit from a workforce that is focused, engaged, and productive.
Managing Director of Golden Exotics, Mr. Benedict John Rich said the low numbers of female employees at the farm, findings of the company revealed, was as a result of the absence of a crèche at the farm for nursing mothers.
The commissioning of the facility was thus one of the activities implemented to climax the weeklong celebrations of the 2022 International Women’s Day.
“In January 2017, GEL commissioned research into finding out the reasons for the low numbers of women employed in GEL. Following the outcome of the research, policies were developed to improve conditions of engagement and of work, particularly for women after a consultative stakeholder meeting,” the MD explained. “One of the key issues for women during the consultative meeting was the absence of a crèche at the farm for nursing mothers. The idea of a crèche at the farm was conceived thereafter.”
The MD who added that many more of such projects were in the offing noted that the project is ample demonstration of the company’s objective of utilizing the resources provided by the Fairtrade Premium Committee (FPC) for the improvement of the livelihoods of the workers and expressed confidence in the FPC to continue to apply the resources to similar projects in the future to enhance the general welfare and economic wellbeing of all GEL/GOL workers.
Fairtrade Officer, Mr. George Kporye in his welcome address underscored the importance of the project to the nursing mothers of the farm, stressing that it would relieve them of the stress of motherhood while working.
“The crèche project which we are inaugurating today is a special one for the FPC because it provides support to our nursing mothers. This should give them peace of mind knowing that their children will be well taken care of while they are at work and significantly, they can have access to them during the break to feed them,” he stressed.
He noted that the facility would ease the mounting pressure on the mother in respect of overseeing their primary responsibility as women and giving the best of education to their children to enable them fully concentrate on their work.
District Chief Executive (DCE) for Shai Osudoku, Honourable Fred Offei observed that “Around the globe, the lack of quality education had continued to be a major barrier to allowing parents, particularly women to participate fully in the workforce.”
According to him, the inauguration of the facility provides a significant opportunity for the women who would essentially remain in the organization and have access to reliable childcare.”
On her part, Madam Harriet Lomotey, Director of Education, Shai Osudoku District while commending the Golden Exotics for their contribution to education in the Shai Osudoku District underscored the need for all stakeholders to come on board and support the structures of education.
"We, as a directorate know that education requires the collective effort of all stakeholders of which the social responsibility of Private organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations cannot be overemphasized," she said, adding that the facility would go a long way to build the foundation of the children through reading, numeracy, and writing skills.
Madam Harriet Lomotey urged the Social Welfare Department of the District Assembly, who are initial supervisors of the Crèche level of Education to liaise with the leadership of GEL to ensure a smooth take-off of the school.
She pledged the commitment of the directorate to the facility through capacity building of the teachers to enable the children to receive quality education delivery at all times.
The project was done in collaboration with and support of various institutions and groups including UK-based NGO, Banalink, IUF, UNICEF, GES, and the Shai Osudoku District Assembly.
The crèche will commence operations in May this year.
