Almost all our Farms are Asocolflores members ( Colombian Floral Association). Its mission is to improve the quality of life of flower workers, their families and communities, based on principles of gender equity, protection to workers, eradication of child labor and acknowledgement of family as the core of welfare.
The Social Development programs are, without doubt, the pillars of AmazonFlowers.us´ mission, defined in terms of “sustainable, harmonic and competitive development as a stable employment source”. Further, the way in which these programs have been envisaged and implemented have allowed our company farms to maintain its essence.
During recent years we have created programs aimed at contributing to the sustainable development of Colombian floriculture, by linking it to a deep sense of corporate social responsibility. Thanks to this effort, we have contributed to the creation of social capital and the strengthening local capacity, and thus becoming a true engine for regional development.
Our Farms core areas of activity include:
Family welfare
a) Cultivating Peace in the Family
b) Asocolflor-es-hogar (Flowers are homes)
c) Child care centers
d) Eradication of child labor
e) School reinforcement
f) Oral health
Training and employment
a) Literacy and completion of primary and secondary education
b) Training
c) School of Floriculture
d) Job creation through support for others less fortunate
Support for Human Resources Management Areas
a) Salary survey
b) Social Report
Recreation
a) Flower theme park (Parque de las Flores)
Community and Image
a) Municipal issues
b) El Invernadero (The Greenhouse newsletter)
c) Corporate Social Responsibility – (CSR)
Cultivating Peace in the Family is a program based on the premise that conflict is natural to human relations. It aims to create a culture of peace through the adoption of non-violent ways to address conflict in the daily lives of workers, their families and communities. It is developed through workshops by groups of workers, in a sequence that seeks to create changes in attitudes and behaviors which are then transmitted to everyone’s family.
“We sow the seeds to contribute to the peace process in our country”
Since the program and its methodology were created, the training process has been taking place since 2000. The first phase included more than 20,000 workers and members of communities in the zone of influence of floriculture. This allowed us to identify the population and geographical areas in which we would be able to increase the work, actions and coverage to seek greater sustainability.
In September 2004 the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, granted funds for the program, which was administered by the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF) and counted on technical assistance from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) until September 2007.
The strategy of the program is based on training facilitators involved with the companies and communities, and who serve as multipliers in different locations. Some of the tools offered by the program include:
Sensitizing
These tools are aimed at different levels of authority within companies or communities, to illustrate the importance of the program in the workplace context. In order to encourage participation in sensitizing strategies, the conceptual basis of the program is presented, along with its main achievements. A series of “mini workshops” are carried out so that guests may explore the advantages of “Cultivating Peace in the Family”. A total of nine sensitizing activities were carried out in 2007.
Advisory services
These activities are aimed at facilitators and Human Resources managers, so as to create a space to share acquired experiences in other spaces where the program is carried out and define which experiences may be tailored to specific needs. A total of 42 activities were carried out.
Support
Support and feedback to are also given to facilitators who are starting to develop the workshops. In 2007 48 activities in this regard were carried out.
Meaningful experiences
Cultivating Peace in the Family creates spaces for beneficiaries to deepen and continue to reflect on the issues proposed with regard to conflict management.
The program also provides opportunities for the exchange of ideas around the different experiences on the farms, in order to improve the program and contribute ideas to different farms and participant communities. In 2007 two meaningful experiences meetings were carried out in Cundinamarca and Antioquia.