Located in Naivasha, Nakuru County in Kenya Florensis flower farm, one of the leading breeders and propagators in the country, in 2021 partnered with Haki Mashinani; a member of the Horticulture Advocacy Network to implement interventions aimed at enhancing wellbeing and resilience of its workers, particularly women. The interventions were supported by Women Win; through its Building Bridges for Women’s Economic Empowerment (BBWEE) programme in Kenya.

Through the Drawing the Line (DTL) methodology/approach, Haki Mashinani engaged the workers at the farm on the issues affecting them at the workplace and their priorities. Drawing the Line (DTL) is a play-based, women-centred methodology which aims at deliberating on the challenges workers face at their workplaces and their priority areas. Following DTL exercise, the workers a Florensis farm, requested for a training on effective communication channels between the workers and the management, labor and employment rights as well as the review of the worker’s handbook.

The trainings for both the workers and management team on labour and employment rights and effective communication channels was conducted in October 2021. From the above sessions Florensis farm identified, prioritised and realised the following key achievements:

• Florensis limited noted the farm’s deliberate initiative to institutionalize training outcomes. These included the revision of the workers handbook, ensuring that new staff were well oriented on the farms policies and procedures and reporting mechanisms for issues arising
• Reviewed the employee handbook which resulted in the development of a training manual for the Human Resource department. The revised Handbook was both a detailed and an abridged version for the workers to better understand the contents therein
• In addressing the communication challenges between the management and the workers, Florensis Limited put in place television screens in the workers rest areas and common rooms using the narrow casting technology to relay information or messages and announcements in a timely manner.
• The farm noted an increase reporting of cases on Gender Based Violence (GBV), due to the awareness that famers now have and the distinguished forms of sexual harassment.
• A Human Resource Business Partner Officer was hired which to assist in streamlining workers’ hiring, appraisals, and evaluations; a result of Haki Mashanani’s intervention through the BBWEE programme.