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Recent Initiatives in Central America
Gildan's locations in Honduras and Nicaragua each have their own donations budget and committee, which evaluates requests in relation to the corporate donation policy. |
| You will find below a few examples of initiatives Gildan contributed to in the communities located in Honduras and Nicaragua.
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HONDURAS |
| Instituto Politécnico Centroamericano (IPC) |
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Building job skills is the best route to sustainable community development and, in 2005, Gildan spearheaded the development of an industry-wide initiative to create the Central American Polytechnic Institute (IPC) in Honduras. Gildan’s initial funding was U.S. $500,000.
The IPC was the first technical institute in Central America to train people for the textile, apparel and other industries through |
intensive two- to five-month courses and through one-year technical programs. Since 2006, Gildan has sponsored more than 200 scholarships to encourage access to these programs for Gildan employees and their families, as well as for members of the local community, for a total contribution of U.S.$ 466,000.
Recognizing the additional challenge for students who are often away from home for the first time, in 2009, Gildan provided business and technical advice that resulted in the construction of a new full-service student residence. The residence enables Honduran and Nicaraguan students to benefit from the training programs without having to pay expensive fees for transportation or temporary accommodations.
Since its inception, a total of 3,386 students graduated from all IPC programs to date, including over
800 students who graduated from the IPC one-year program, with a 90% job placement record in a wide range of companies in Honduras, including at Gildan.
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The goal of the Ethical Fashion Project is to demonstrate the broad range of factors that should go into designing and producing an “ethical” garment. This includes choosing materials that benefit the environment, opting for suppliers with verifiable fair labour practices, and maintaining responsible interactions and exchanges between the buyers, designers and suppliers. |
In collaboration with the FLA, the IPC and the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware, Gildan participated in the development and launch of an ethical fashion project that encompasses design development through production. Students at the University of Delaware created the designs, Gildan donated fabric, and IPC students created the patterns and produced the final garments. Thanks to a
U.S. $40,000 grant from Cotton Inc., in 2010 students from the University of Delaware visited the IPC and Gildan’s facilities in Honduras. Following that, students from the IPC completed the exchange program by visiting the University of Delaware.
| Mario Ugarte Technical Institute |
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In 2009, Gildan saw another opportunity to support the development of technical education in Honduras, with a
U.S. $20,000 donation to a school by the name of Centro Técnico Vocacional Mario Ugarte located in the city of Choloma where Gildan operates four facilities. Our donation enabled the set up and ensuing operation of both a modern computer center and an English language laboratory. As a result of this sponsorship, a group of 350 low-income students received an hour a day of computer and English lessons throughout the school year. This project will ultimately enable the implementation of the methodology |
known as WORKKEYS, which will help graduates master basic skills in applied mathematics, information seeking and informative lectures on the profession for which they are being trained. Gildan’s contribution to the technical institute is part of an agreement between institutions sponsored by the Centro Asesor para el Desarrolo del Recurso Humano (CADERH) and IPC, which aims to improve and update the curricula of technical schools in Honduras in order to allow students to acquire the necessary competencies for the business sector.
Basic education and literacy are taken for granted in many places. Unfortunately, this is not the reality everywhere. Recognizing this challenge, since 2003 Gildan has supported Educatodos, a program developed in partnership with the Honduran Ministry of Education and the United States Agency for International Development, which offers primary and secondary education classes.
Government funding for the program was suspended in 2009 due to the political instability in the country but, in August 2010, the program was officially re-launched. This year, approximately 340 employees participated in the program and we intend to continue expanding registrations in the future. |
The Teleton foundation is a non-profit organization created in 1987, which provides physical and mental rehabilitation. The foundation has centres for disabled people in different areas of Honduras. Every December
it organizes a campaign to raise money in order to keep their centres running. Gildan and its employees have been supporting this cause since 2003, for a total contribution of over U.S.$115,000. |
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NICARAGUA |
| Casa de la Cultura in San Marcos |
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San Marcos’ Casa de la Cultura is a cultural centre which promotes arts, history, and cultural activities in the Carazo region, Nicaragua. The Casa de la Cultura includes the Arlen Siu public library, and a computer centre. It also offers music and painting lessons. All services and activities are free.The San Marcos’ Casa de la Cultura was grappling with infiltrations in the ceiling, which were most importantly affecting its library, one of the biggest in the Carazo region, with an average of 150 young boys and girls visiting every day, and the computer centre, where kids and teenagers go to work on their school projects. |
In 2010, Gildan donated more than U.S. $5,000 of material to repair the ceiling of the Casa de la Cultura, which benefits the many kids who go there on a regular basis.
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In the small town of Diriamba, near our San Marcos facility, the Francisco Cordero School, where a high percentage of Gildan employees’ children go to school, was in urgent need of repairs. Gildan performed a needs assessment at the school, which highlighted that it had insufficient washroom facilities and needed overall repairs to plumbing. Gildan aided in having washrooms built and in providing drinking fountains for the 650 children that attend the school every day. |
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