How the Poverty Stoplight Business Network eliminates poverty for employees
Written by Lilian Duarte, Coordinator for Businesses.
Here at Poverty Stoplight we understand the complexity of the work involved in improving the quality of life for employees at a company. These types of problems usually require multidisciplinary knowledge for solutions; many times a company in isolation does not have the time, resources or experience to properly deal with the situation.
Through the Poverty Stoplight for Businesses program, we create a network of organizations that work together to solve common problems. By gathering a team of professionals from different companies, we discover multiple perspectives on poverty and develop better strategies to address it and eliminate it from within businesses. In this way, companies are not simply beneficiaries of the program, but they become leaders of change. Poverty Stoplight for Businesses helps each company to identify their capacities and allows them to share with the network solutions based on their experience and skills.
This year we created four business teams in charge of working on different Poverty Stoplight indicators: the Ikatu team (Diversified Source of Income), the No Violencia team (Domestic Violence), the Plata Yvyguy team (Savings), and the Construhogar team (Bathrooms). Each team was challenged to devise effective solutions within their organizations and share them with the network.
The Ikatu team, in charge of the Diversified Source of Income indicator, is led by Grupo Sueñolar. The team (comprised of Credicentro, Agrofuturo, Red Guaraní, NSA, Yrendague, Visión Banco, and ADEC) presented its biggest challenges and their proposed solutions during the Poverty Stoplight business meeting. One major challenge they observed was a training gap around entrepreneurship, making it difficult for employees and their families to undertake new business opportunities. They also identified lack of family budget planning and high levels of debt among employees as major problems.
During the rest of the year, the team will carry out free workshops organized by Emprendé Paraguay, an initiative of Fundación Paraguaya. Participants at these workshops will be able to learn about entrepreneurship and techniques to generate an additional source of income for their families. Instructional videos will be developed in order to scale up this training and reach more people. Additionally, the team will establish a strategic alliance with the National Vocational Promotion Service to get free workshops on different trades.
The No Violencia team, in charge of the Domestic Violence indicator, is led by Visión Banco. The team (comprised of Cafepar, El Mejor, Iris, Aseguradora Tajy, Fundación Paraguaya, Censu and Grupo Sueñolar) also presented their proposed solutions during the Poverty Stoplight network meeting. Seeking to raise awareness on the fight against domestic violence, the team decided to prepare communication materials focused on the prevention of violence. They will select instructional videos about violence and adapt them to the Paraguayan situation, thus preparing them to be shared via WhatsApp and email. The Anive Campaign will be launched later this year and the team will present different activities that can educate on the problem of Domestic Violence, such as the Five Senses Game, the Roulette of the Violence Cycle, the Love Doesn’t Hurt campaign, the Masculinities workshop, and the Participatory Route.
The Silver Yvyguy team, in charge of the Savings indicator, is led by Credicentro. The team (comprised of Grupo Sueñolar, Upisa, Farmacenter, EDESA, Alberdin, Pulp, Automaq, Aseguradora Tajy, Grupo Riquelme, FAPASA, Blue Design, Fundación Visión, Climarco, and Amigo y Arditi) worked on an action plan to address their assigned indicator. They decided to carry out a campaign that encourages savings among employees from this team for a period of six months (July to December). Once the campaign is put into action, participants will be encouraged to open a savings account and present their monthly statement as a source of verification. If the participant reaches their goal in the projected time, the company will increase the amount of their savings. Many businesses, eager to take advantage of this campaign, have started to negotiate with banks in order to obtain preferential interest rates, thus offering employees more reasons to open their own savings account.
Lastly, the Construhogar team, in charge of the Bathroom indicator, is led by El Mejor. The team (comprised of Fundación San José, Farmacenter, Blue Design, EDESA and Fundación Paraguaya) shared the experience of building and renovating 28 bathrooms for employees. They used fundraising, corporate volunteering, recycling and other collaborative activities to empower beneficiaries and co-workers to help in the construction of the bathrooms. This increased their sense of belonging and improved the work climate, in addition to transforming “reds” into “greens” in the Bathroom indicator.
The Poverty Stoplight business network continues to demonstrate how the private sector can promote positive changes in society. This is only the beginning of the network’s effort to improve the quality of life of collaborators!
