1.    Introduction

CKC Employee Well-being program (CEW program) launched by Center for Knowledge Co-creation and Development Research (CKC) since July 2021 aims to operationalise CKC’s existing policies and business plan on the well-being of CKC members, vitalise individual efforts in putting CEW into effects; and boost employee well-being, business performance, and organisational attachment. The operational rationale of the program is based on four focal pillars: Health and Safety (H &S); Physical and Emotional Well-being; Social Welfare; and Work Space.

 

2.    Program areas

2.1. Health and safety

CKC is committed to providing and maintaining a healthy and safe working environment for all staff and collaborators under its H&S policy. Accordingly, CKC provides safe procedures and systems of work and in the field; maintaining the workspace in a safe and healthy condition; continually reviewing the workspace and field trip systems and procedures and implementing improvements; and providing adequate facilities to protect the health, safety, and welfare of CKC staff and collaborators. Many initiatives have been implemented, such as Emergency First Aid Training and work from home practice amid the COVID-19 context.

 

2.2. Physical and Emotional Wellbeing

To foster work productivity, satisfaction, and attachment among CKC staff, we have initiated various activities focusing on improving physical well-being (Office Yoga Sessions, Trekking Trips, and Care Packages); emotional and mental well-being (Tea Talks, Get-together Days, Mental Health Check-in on RUOK Day); and community well-being (Gardening and Environmental Clean-ups). Taking care of co-workers’ well-being is essential in our culture to manifest an ideal working environment in which every employee can sense their engagement and embrace, and therefore enhance their resilience.

 

2.3. Work Space

CKC attempts to create a cozy, effective, and highly welcoming workspace with the greatest comfort for all CKC employees and co-workers engaged in our office. CKC has been adopting its Green Office Policy, which commits to curbing single-use plastic, saving energy, planting in the office, and maintaining hygienic conditions with the aim of creating a “green” workplace and promoting environmental protection among CKC members. In addition, to foster a culture of knowledge co-creation and career well-being, an Office Library with a diverse collection of books has been established, and a regular series of professional development training has been maintained over the years.

 

2.4. Social Welfare

CKC social welfare is to ensure that services, facilities, and benefits given to the employees to work in a better environment. These policies are in place so that employees may maintain proper productivity and fulfillment in the workplace, as well as to express CKC’s appreciation for each contribution. Welfare activities are reserved for special days (birthdays, weddings, funerals, religious and cultural days, and other anniversaries), public holidays, health care (flexible sick-leave policies and health care gifts), work arrangement (flexible working hours and work from home policy), workplace amenities and facilities (drinking water, toilets, washing facilities, seating, temperature, workspace, lighting, and access to equipment).

 

3. Program Coordinator

We are pleased to inform Vinh Tran as the first one-year-term CEW Program Coordinator of CKC.

 

On August 11, Center for Knowledge Co-creation and Development Research (CKC) organised the support package delivery ceremony for visually impaired workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic working at the Niem Tin (Hope) Massage Service Center of Thua Thien Hue Province Blind Association. This is a part of the project “Support for blind massage workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Hue city” initiated by CKC and supported by SEA Junction’s “Staying Resilient Amid the Pandemic in Southeast Asia” grant in partnership with CMB and WIEGO.

 

 

CKC provided health and safety kits for 31 blind massage workers and two thermometers for Niem Tin Center to enhance the Center’s protective services. A financial support of VND 10.5 million was provided to 15 female workers. Scholarship of VND 6.3 million was granted to nine children from extremely difficult blind households. CKC also transferred a transport cost support package valued VND 6.2 million which will be used as a promotional activity that attracts customers when the Center operation resumes to normal.

 

 

“This is seen as a significant encouragement and timely assistance at a time when blind people have been out of work for an extended period of time and have been unable to locate alternative sources of income since the pandemic’s emergence”, according to Mr. Le Van Loc – Standing Committee member of Vietnam Association of the Blind, Chairman of Thua Thien Hue Province Association of the Blind, Director of Niem Tin Massage Service Center. The COVID-19 pandemic has halted nearly all of the Center’s commercial activities, with the massage service considered the most impacted when social distance and restricted interaction are required during the pandemic.

 

 

We gratefully acknowledge the timely support of SEA Junction, as well as the enthusiastic collaboration of Thua Thien Hue Province Association of the Blind, for the effective implementation of this activity. We hope that the pandemic situation would be under control shortly, allowing blind workers to resume their usual lives and jobs. Under the framework of this project, CKC will also work with Niem Tin Center to promote its marketing activities during coronavirus crisis.

 

 

Tu Nguyen

 

CKC successfully carried out five-day field visits to Quang Loi, Dien Hai, Phu An, Huong Phong, and Loc Binh communes with an expert team in the field of literature and history studies, photography and cinematography from 31 July to 8 August. During the field visits, we not only got a taste of the vibrant local life in the Tam Giang – Cau Hai lagoon, but we also engaged with local leaders, experienced elders, rustic fisherfolk, and young people who are passionate about their homes. Thanks to their enthusiastic support, we have collected valuable resources related to tangible and intangible cultural heritages, particularly oral traditions accumulated and inherited over history, which have been gradually vanished and not fully recorded.

 

“Lagoon tourism development demands a more systematic approach. One of the positive things is cultural heritage, but more efforts are needed in order to preserve it and to choose an appropriate approach which can be bequeathed to the future generation” said by Mr. Luong The Vinh, Former Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Loc Binh Commune. Creating an alternative and sustainable livelihood for local people through tourism development based on cultural and traditional values is an emerging need ​​to reduce overfishing while protecting the lagoon ecosystem.

 

The field trip is a component of the PT Foundation-funded project “Sustainable Tourism through Cultural Heritage at the Tam Giang – Cau Hai Lagoon”, which will result in a publication based on researching, recording and using local cultures. Prior to the trip, local community researchers in five project communes spent a month on collecting and documenting the lagoon’s history, culture, customs, and stories. The field trip allows CKC to verify the research data and information collected and sense the enthusiasm and concerns of the local people for rich cultural values and development potentials of the Southeast Asia’s biggest lagoon.