Pioneers in home services
Unlike for-profit cleaning firms, which focus their attention on the market for office buildings or moving house, the Peng Wan-Ru Foundation has always put home services front and center. This is connected to the foundation's ideals and practices of "making home responsibilities a public concern" and organizing collective solutions to contemporary home problems.
Since its creation in 1997, the foundation has devised a number of community-based welfare and service programs, including community baby-sitting systems, self-governing community preschools, after-school care for primary-school children, home management services, and home care support networks. Of these, the home management services program has grown the fastest and provides the largest number of jobs, and is now the core around which the whole community care system revolves. It has not only helped many women find work, it has allowed the foundation to develop a model to become financially self-supporting.
The number of people within the foundation's support system for housekeepers has reached about 2000 per year. (Half of these are in northern Taiwan.) Total wages and salaries have surpassed NT$900 million, for average monthly earnings of NT$28,000 per person. (The average for northern Taiwan, where the cost of living is higher, is NT$32,000.) The average age of these housekeepers is between 40 and 50, and most have at most a high-school education. Even more importantly, nearly half are either single mothers or the main source of income for their households.
Faced with this group of "disadvantaged women," the foundation's selection process and training methods are "famous for their strictness."
Wang Huei-chu, the executive director of the Peng Wan-Ru Foundation, states that the main objective in the training for housekeepers is to help women become independent, but clients are most interested in the quality of the services they receive, so the foundation won't pull any punches just because the women are disadvantaged. On the contrary, right from the start the foundation forces everyone to look reality right in the face and evaluate their own job skills and employment possibilities, in order to minimize unrealistic expectations. Only in this way can the foundation "use the limited resources we have on the right people."
But how do you pick out the "right" people?
First, during introductory meetings for the program, the lecturers will explain how the courses are arranged and the rules governing future employment, while emphasizing: Today more and more clients are requesting that their housekeeper be able to prepare dinner; therefore cooking is an essential skill, and at the very least you have to be able to stay on the job until 7 or 8 p.m. During training, arriving late or leaving early are prohibited, because this behavior reflects on a person's ability to be punctual and keep promises. For people who have weak constitutions or are suffering from an illness, the foundation suggests that they see a physician and look after their health first, and only rejoin the program after they have fully recovered.
Following statements of this kind, people who can sense that they are not going to fit in will leave of their own accord. For those who remain, besides filling out a form disclosing basic information, the most important thing is the one-on-one interview. Some people burst into tears as soon as they open their mouths, pouring out their painful pasts and their feelings of uncertainty about the future; some want to work but wonder whether they can put their pride aside and "lower themselves" to housekeeping; others can't understand the rules and want to ask a lot of questions. At times like these the interviewer will do whatever she can to clarify issues, and will provide encouragement and support when necessary.
The emphasis in training is not -merely to teach technical skills, but also to allow the foundation to observe people's personalities under real-life kinds of circumstances. "Housekeeping involves entering another person's private space, so the most important thing is integrity, followed by attention to detail," notes senior supervisor Zhao Cuijun.
Women should step up and help other women! With the help of the Peng Wan-Ru Foundation, 2000 women in Taiwan have lifted themselves out of poverty to become professional home managers, while 7000 households requiring efficient housekeepers with integrity have found just what they need. The photo shows customer service personnel at the foundation.