Friday fun in the factory ! Who doesn’t want to work with us ? #sanitarypads #menstruation #menstrualhygienemanagement #menses #faytexcaresforyou #Faytex #accra #ghana (bij Accra, Ghana)
Come and join us at THE GIRL PROJECT on November 11 at Rawlings Park - Makola Market for Menstrual Hygiene Talks ! Our brand ambassador Rabby Bray will be present too ! Organized by GrubforSmiles in collaboration with Power To Girls Foundation #thegirlproject #grubforsmiles #rabbybray #faytexcares #csr #menstrualhygiene @grubforsmiles @powertogirlsgh @rabbybray
Become a #faytex #distributor ! Want to become an #entrepreneur ? Expand your own #business ? Make extra #income ? Join us ! More info via the link in our bio ! #faytexcaresforyou #Faytex #women #menstruation #ghana #ghanjobs
Link in Bio ! www.faytexsanitary.com #menstruation #ghana #menstrualhygienemanagement #mhm #girlsmatter #empowerment #accra #kumasi #pads
Have a good week ladies ! #mhm #menstruation #ghana #menstrualhygienemanagement #faytexcaresforyou #Faytex #womenempowerment (bij Greater Accra Region)
About 52% of the female population is of reproductive age and most of them are menstruating every month. The majority of them have no access to clean and safe sanitary products, or to a clean and private space in which to change menstrual cloths or pads and to wash. Poor protection and inadequate washing facilities may increase susceptibility to infection, with the odour of menstrual blood putting girls at risk of being stigmatized. Therefore it’s important to have access to clean water and always wash your hands first before touching your genitalia. #globalhandwashingday @wateraid_ghana #wash #menstrualhygienemanagement #faytexcaresforyou #unicef (bij Accra, Ghana)
We love the @beyonce #freedom song for #idg - Have you all seen it ? Check it out by clicking on the link in bio. We have posted it on our @faytexsanitary @youtube channel ❤️ #internationaldayofthegirl #menstrualhygienemanagement #powertogirls #accra #ghana #faytexcaresforyou
The #internationaldayofthegirl conference made it to the Ghanian Times ! Pick up your newspaper today ! Thanks 🙏🏽 @_power2girls @powertogirlsgh @crossroadsinternational @zanetorofficial Because #girlsmatter #weallbleed #faytexcaresforyou #menstrualhygienemanagement #accra #ghana #socialresponsibilty #empoweringgirls
Everyday it’s #girlsday for us ! #weallbleed #menstruationmatters #menstrualhygiene #dayofthegirl #breakthesilence #accra #ghana Pic of our marketing manager @achieng5545 at the girl #orphanage talking about choice ! 👸🏾👸🏽👸🏿 (bij Accra, Ghana)
#empowering girls through #menstrualhygienemanagement is our #mission - In honor of #Internationalgirlday we distributed #sanitarypads and motivating young girls in #breakthesilence @unicef @unwomen @___wash___ Organized by @powertogirlsgh #crossroads #canadainghana #empowering speeches by @zanetorofficial
Celebrating #internationaldayofthegirls in collaboration with @powertogirlsgh #highcommission #canada #crossroads #wildaf #idg #menstruationmatters (bij Accra, Ghana)
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 ;)
Solidarity is our weapon ! Love to all women whether they are taking care of their households, are entrepreneurs or employed. Truth of the matter is women work multiple jobs every day. We try to be caring mothers, take care of our husbands, children, support our colleagues, prepare three meals a day and attempt to shatter glass ceilings. However, everyday we are put through either perverted comments on the way to work (at work) or even to the store. We don’t get paid equally no matter the amount of degrees we have and some of us get a nice portion of racism on top of that. Whether you are living in a developed or underdeveloped country; The reality is the same. Some countries have indeed better laws but it doesn’t take away of how women are treated everyday (with disrepect) in daily life. Sometimes the West is just better at hiding their tactics of female discrimination while other countries publicly state it. We are all suffering the same faith and for that I am standing here today with my fellow sisters around the world!
p>Right on time to still wish a Happy New Year !
My promise for 2017!
It’s been a while since I have written on the blog. I am thinking the last time I blogged I was on mission in Burkina Faso. The past 2 years, I was very active writing articles on my blog and due to an even more overloaded work schedule I had to reduce my online presence. However, I am hoping to find a good balance this year with about one post a month. That is my online promise for 2017! I did take down Facebook and Instagram as I would like to keep my social presence purely professional. So no more time wasting about where I went for dinner and what holiday I went on. This way I can focus on good articles and keep you guys interested in working for the informal worker rights and microfinance.
The first day back at work:
My face appears on this year’s diversity calendar of the Belgian Liberal Trade Union as slogan - Together for 2017 !
2017 is the year we all must work together - solidarity is the key word to unite people. However, many people including new presidents use these words but will the end result be the same ?? Well looking at our calendar it is easy to see that the union stands for diversity, respect and solidarity.
Solidarity is reflected into our union program MIS Movement for International Solidarity or in Dutch ~ BIS (Beweging voor Internationale Solidariteit). This Year my 2 focus countries will be Congo and Burundi. We have split the tasks of managing East & West Africa. After our mission in Burkina Faso we realized that the workload of combining East & West Africa was too much. I am very excited to soon be traveling to Congo, to see the work of the Kananga union in action. The focus here is on women. I don’t want to go to much in detail on the program as I want to dedicate a post to this particular gender empowering mission soon.
End of 2016 ?
I am writing about 2017 and the plans but how did I close 2016 ?
After Ouagadougou I went on a training about development aid. I thought I knew it all and questioned why I had to go to 11.11.11 for an introduction to development aid. I wrote my master thesis on the fourth pillar of development aid … I have worked in the field and from the desk. Well, I was wrong ! I learnt many new aspects.
11.11.11 took us through the history of development aid. The politics of binding aid and non binding aid. Binding aid is the most common form of development aid in which donor nations only send funds if there is an economic, political or military return for themselves. Yikes ! Dirty … however binding aid policies were a trend once before and are now back again.
Didn’t President Trump say we should have taken Iraq’s oil?… Well, development aid is leaning more towards the ‘what is in it for us?’. Meaning what is in it for the Donor States. Development aid has been scrutinized over the years as it hasn’t been working like it should over the past decades, but it isn’t development aid alone. Immensely huge figures of development aid are always shown to the tax payers but how much of these figures are actually real? For example, if a donor country cancels past governmental debt - this figure can be included in the development figures as money spent. Although no actual money was wired; therefore certain amounts are counted for double. I was definitely not aware of this!
Most people think that most African nations depend on development aid while this is not the case. Only the poorest nations do but even then it is not sufficient. A good example is Burkina Faso, the poorest country in Africa that depends largely on aid.
11.11.11 also presented the EFQM quality model of the Belgian NGO sector, a commitment to excellence process for development aid. In development aid we have a lot of reporting. Sometimes even too much reporting. Donor countries want to be able to measure everything and sometimes I wonder if we have entered the era of development aid for reporting ?
Let’s see… I read the 2017 report of the government policies in relation to aid… time will tell!
Good Luck in 2017 !
#tbt In the beginning of this year I gave #coaching #sessions for #female #entrepreneurs & #startups in #morocco #tanger #casablanca #tetouan through @exchangevzw @apefe_asbl #AFEM (bij Casablanca, Morocco)
I just realized I look like #vaiana #moana Thank you for making this movie #disney I know what I will be wearing next #halloween
#internationalwomenday in #belgium falls on #november11 and not on #march8 As it was one of the first countries that implemented a #womenday and later the #international one was introduced. Anywho shot out to the #women of the CSB union in #burkinafaso #po (bij Pô)
I don’t like to give my political opinion but today I can’t resist. People are so sexist (this counts for men & women) that they rather have #Trump as #President then a strong woman with a proven political track record. #Hilary has traits that most men don’t like in women and most women envy Hilary. Women writing that they are happy the *itch didn’t win - You guys are sad. America could handle a “black” (mixed race to be correct) President but not a woman. The world isn’t ready for that ! #genderdiscrimination #sexism #xenophobia #islamophopia was the campaign from a newly elected #president in a so called #progressive country… imagine where the rest of the world is at ? #uselections2016 Hilary might not have won the election but she showed the world what women can and will govern in the future ! #femalepower
My union partner brought me a gift #djembe his home ! Fighting together for the rights of #informalworkers #burundi #africa #tradeunion #ILO My #tumblr #blog : #microfinancemasala #consultancyservices #francinecarron
Celebrating #UNDAY In #burkinafaso -“Humanity has entered the era of #sustainability - Everyone has a global commitment to fulfil the great promise of the #2030 #Agenda for #Sustainable #Development. Today the Organization’s 71st year, there are 17 goals to propel us towards a better future for all on a healthy planet. ” — UN Secretary-General, #bankimoon October 24 in 1971, the #UN General Assembly recommended that the day be observed by Member States as a public holiday. (I don’t see no holiday here though :s)
This year’s #UNDay will be used to highlight concrete actions people can take to help achieve the #sdg !
(bij Africa/Ouagadougou)