Special Feature
IETP targets support for 30,000 children through Family-Friendly Spaces programme The ICTI Ethical Toy Program (IETP), the specialist industry programme focused on the well-being of production workers globally, has announced that it is aiming to support 30,000 children through 100 Family-Friendly Spaces, publicly recognizing 50 factories as Family-Friendly by the end of 2025. Aoife McCarthy, IETP executive, tells us more.
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he Family-Friendly Spaces initiative was first launched in 2016, to support "left behind children" in China; Children whose parents had migrated domestically to major cities for work and were unable to bring them with them. It is understood that around 23m children are separated from their parents in Mainland China. IETP’s independent research shows childcare as one of the main reasons workers leave their factory jobs; Family-Friendly Spaces are specifically designed to support the childcare needs of working parents during the summer school holiday period, creating safe, secure and well-equipped childcare facilities at factories or in the local community where children learn and play while their parents focus on work, knowing their children are safe. Since 2016, the Family-Friendly Spaces programme has been established in 42 factories and has benefitted over 4,000 children and 4,500 working
parents. The Spaces are not simply a childcare solution, but help shape the lives of workers and their children. Xiao Min, from Yunnan in China, is 11 years old. She first attended a Space at the age of four and this summer, attended for the 7th time. Her father works and lives in Guangdong and was quick to enroll his daughter in the programme when it first arrived at his factory, allowing him to see her more. Unfortunately, the programme was not available at his factory when his eldest daughter was growing up, so he only saw her a few times a year when he could take annual leave. A lack of parental involvement negatively impacted his eldest daughter's life & education, he told IETP: “[she] would skip going to school and would not study, so she dropped down a grade in primary school. I feel really guilty for not being around to support her.” In contrast, Xiao Min, who joined the programme aged four as a very shy and timid girl, has grown into a
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confident, happy and lively young girl; doing well at school and often publicly speaking at Family-Friendly Spaces ceremonies and events. In 2019, his factory successfully campaigned for spaces to be made available to migrant children, usually restricted by China’s Hukou system, allowing Xiao Min and her sister to move to live with her father full-time. Xiao Min continues to attend the Summer Family-Friendly Space and throughout the rest of the year, the After-School centres provided by her father’s factory, initially implemented by IETP and made possible with funding support from Buyer Members of IETP. Xiao Min’s story is just one example of thousands
