Fyffes Begins Campaign for Gender Equality on its Honduran Farms
To address the gender inequality that is pervasive in the country, particularly in agriculture, Fyffes and its subsidiary Sol Group, a melon producer in Honduras, have started a programme called HERessentials.
The gender equality training programme at Sol Honduras will help educate male and female employees on gender-related topics such as health, personal finances, interpersonal relationships, and stress management.
The programme is associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goal for gender equality.
Fyffes has a long-standing cooperation with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) on their HERproject initiative and started executing a gender programme in Honduras and Costa Rica in 2019.
BSR established a digital version of HERproject called HERessentials in response to the pandemic, and Fyffes assisted in adapting this online version to the cultural context of Latin America by including examples of gender challenges facing the region.
Fyffes has already released the Heressentials tool via training apps on tablets in Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador, and Honduras and will soon do so in Colombia.
Michael Fletes, Sustainability Coordinator at Sol Honduras, said:
"Since its inception in Honduras, 959 fieldworkers and packhouse workers have been trained on the HERessentials program, including seasonal workers, supervisors, managers and administrative employees.
"The experience has been enriching as we have brought technology closer to people, provided a safe space to address their work concerns including gender issues, and learned about the challenges faced by our people as well as the community needs. We have also established a Gender Committee to address gender-related concerns in the workplace.”
Source: Fresh Fruit Portal
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