CARE Bangladesh, Marks & Spencer sign MoU

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony was held yesterday in the country office of Marks & Spencer (M&S) in Dhaka. 

The MoU has been signed between CARE Bangladesh and M&S to strengthen the partnership and extend the collaboration to improve the lives of factory workers working in Gazipur, said a press release.

The main objective of this MoU is to bring all the workers (approximately 100,000) of 34 Factories of M&S under vaccine protection by strengthening the ongoing Covid-19 activities and working together to build a quality health, nutrition, Family Planning (FP), and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) information & service system for the factory workers and their communities. 

Moreover, CARE Bangladesh will use an online-based Emergency Communications Management (ECM) platform to accelerate the dissemination of critical information on the importance of vaccination to factory workers at scale. This will be done by using text, voice messages, WhatsApp, and establishing a hotline to answer questions that address rumours on COVID-19 vaccines, and facilitating vaccine readiness and registration.

The ceremony was attended by Ramesh Singh, country director, CARE Bangladesh, and Shwapna Bhowmick, Bangladesh country manager, M&S. 

The event started with a welcome speech and a brief update on the vaccination coverage of the 34 M&S factory workers in Gazipur facilitated and supported by CARE Bangladesh, given by Dr Ikhtiar Uddin Khandaker, director, Health Program, CARE Bangladesh. 

Following the update, Mizanur Rahman, senior social compliance manager, M&S, shared his remarks regarding this occasion and the overall partnership of CARE Bangladesh.

Among others, Mohammad Hafijul Islam, senior technical coordinator (team lead), Urban Health, CARE Bangladesh; Rashed Mahmud, social compliance manager, M&S; Nusrat Daud Pritha, acting head, communications and PR unit, CARE Bangladesh; Monisha Mafruha, technical coordinator, Urban Health, CARE Bangladesh, and Tanzin Kibria Labonno, senior technical officer-M&E, CARE Bangladesh, were present.