The Women’s Bakery provides health insurance for all full-time team members. A full review of health insurance options, however, revealed that while local insurance is the best option for general medical care, the women bakers were being given incorrect and inappropriate reproductive information. The Social Impact Team partnered with the development team to secure funding for additional medical needs, specifically for women bakers.
As a result:
47 women now have health insurance coverage (all women bakers also have coverage for their children).
3 medical funds were set up - one for each bakery to provide coverage for additional medical needs or sometime emergencies expenses not covered by insurance.
1 new partnership with Iranzi medical clinic to provide accurate reproductive information and personalized maternal care for women bakers. The medical team from Iranzi will conduct on-site visits at each bakery, removing the barrier of travel to accessing care.
Social Impact Programming is funded by generous donors like you. Thank you for your support!
Read below to hear from Yvonne, TWB’s Social Impact Program Manager, about the services offered and what this care means to women.
The new partnership with Iranzi medical clinic will provide increased access to reproductive and maternal care. What kinds of care/treatment are strong women baking bread accessing during the Iranzi clinic visits that they otherwise wouldn’t be accessing?
Iranzi clinic visits provides different types of medical treatment, listed below:
Family planning: In other public health centers, different methods of family planning are expensive and this was not previously accessed easily by strong women bakers,
Prenatal consultation: all types of tests offered to the pregnant women such as ultrasounds, tests for hepatitis B and C, vaccines for hepatitis
Cervical cancer screening
Breast cancer screening
Tuberculosis screening
What is the impact of these visits on women bakers?
Accessing medical care has huge impact to the women bakers such as:
Having the possibility of a better life because of receiving medical care when strong women need it.
It has brought hope and joy to themselves as well as their entire families.
It has also encouraged them to think and plan for their future and for a better life.
Employing strong, happy, healthy, and motivated women bakers who are better fit to perform their job and produce nutritious bread to their communities.
