Resource

Brief

Meeting family planning needs of factory workers in Port Said: Lessons from pilot testing an intervention in eight garment factories (English and Arabic)

The Evidence Project conducted an interven­tion to raise awareness about family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) topics with factory workers in Port Said, Egypt. This policy brief describes les­sons from its implementation over three years and offers recommenda­tions for designing FP/RH worker health programs. These lessons and recommendations are based on insights from factory worker program beneficiaries, their peer educators, factory managers, and project staff.

Key lessons learned from the intervention were: (1) worker health programs offered a unique venue for raising young people’s awareness of FP/RH issues and available services; (2) factory workers played an important role in sharing FP/RH information with their co-workers, and factory nurses could expand their role to include FP/RH counseling for workers as well as referrals for FP/RH services; (3) factories with large numbers of female workers could consider on-site women’s health clinics to address workers’ FP/RH needs, and factory health committees for worker health program management may help enhance their sustainability.