The Movember Foundation is the leading charity working on a global scale to address some of the biggest health issues faced by men: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention.
The challenge to ‘Grow A Mo’ began with two friends in 2003 and developed into an annual global activity to raise awareness and funds for vital research and men’s health initiatives.
The health and well-being of our teams are important to Kiwi.com and the Movember event gave us an opportunity to take part in an event that was fun and relevant to us all.
Our main objective with the Movember initiative was to create awareness and increase the level of comfort for men to discuss and seek advice for their health concerns and issues as it’s not something that comes naturally to most men.
Organizers of the initiative were Claudia Likambi, our Employee Health and Well-Being Specialist, and Carolyn Gindein, our Sustainability Manager who stated that we also wanted to raise awareness for women because these issues affect all family members so it’s important for everyone to understand the warning signs and the need for early detection.
Claudia said that men’s health topics like cancer awareness and mental health are often overlooked.
“Within the Movember initiative, we focussed on various awareness topics. I feel that people are quite shy to talk about mental health topics and this could be exactly the reason to do more of such initiatives,” said Claudia.
What activities did we do during November?
- Cooperated with the NGO Doctors and organized health stands in our offices. Young doctors came in for half a day to provide information about the early detection and prevention of prostate and testicular cancers and mental health care. Local optometrists were conducting vision checks and a local nutritionist did body-composition diagnostic scans and nutritional advice.
Josef, our Organizational Development and Transformation Expert enjoyed the workshop about nutrition.
“We had the nutrition for cancer prevention workshop and it was just amazing. I learned so much about it, she was great,” said Josef.
- We also followed the Movember fundraising activity format and held Moustache growing and Move for Movember events that Kiwis could enter and participate in from any location. Voting for the best Moustaches took place online and winners were given a prize in whichever office location they were based.
- International Men’s Day occurs on 19th November and is also focussed on men’s health and men building good relationships in families and communities through being positive role models. We followed the International Men’s day theme by acknowledging positive male role models who improve the culture at Kiwi.com and make the workplace better for everyone. Kiwis could nominate a male colleague and send a message to say what makes them a positive role model.
Cyril, Quality Team Manager received the recognition for International Men’s Day and he was nominated by his colleague Karen, Risk & Insurance Analyst.
“Receiving compliments from someone who means a lot to you at work is very rewarding. I saw it as a reward for my daily efforts to maintain a positive atmosphere around me,” shared Cyril.
Jan, our Finance Data Analytics Expert got recognized by Karen, Senior Finance Data Specialist. Jan said that as he is a person who has doubts about his managerial and leadership skills it was extremely gratifying to receive positive feedback.
“I’m grateful I have received this feedback, be it through the International Men’s Day initiative or any other form. There is nothing better than being appreciated by people who you spend so much time with,” said Jan.
All our locations in one program
Carolyn mentioned that the four locations with the biggest populations were selected for the in-person events and our local site teams were instrumental in making those happen so we’re grateful for their collaboration.
All local events were organized for the most appropriate time at each location with the exception of International Men’s Day which was celebrated on the same day at all locations.
Claudia said that from what she could see, people on Kiwi.com do care a lot about their well-being. “Each site was flexible in choosing and organizing in-person workshops and awareness screenings. Other activities were offered online so literally the barriers to not being able to join this was completely removed. People attended various initiatives such as free eyesight testing, body composition testing, nutrition for cancer prevention, and so on. On the other hand, it became apparent that there is a need for more conversations around mental health without stigma, ” added Claudia.
Recognizing the positive impacts of healthy, happy people on the innovation and productivity of a business and the negative impacts of unhealthy, disengaged people is important. The well-being of our colleagues is clearly relevant to the sustainability of our business and relates to the social pillar of our Sustainability program.
“In addition to wellbeing, we worked to ensure the activities were inclusive and supported not only the Movember charity but also our communities through cooperation with NGOs and local businesses. Connecting several aspects of our Sustainability pillars is important for all our activities so that we can make the most beneficial impact possible”, said Carolyn.
Are you interested in boosting your career at Kiwi.com? Check our open positions and don’t hesitate to apply.