Who are ENHAS?

Entebbe Handling Services (ENHAS) offers passenger and cargo handling services in Entebbe, Uganda; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo and; Juba, South Sudan. ENHAS focuses on good health for its employees understanding that good health means good business.

What is the challenge?

Healthcare has long been a problem in Uganda and medical treatment is an expensive undertaking for an average family. Additionally, the economic cost of poor health for businesses presents a challenge for companies to grow when hampered by low productivity. Although the government has devoted many resources to the fight against and prevention of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS, they still remain the highest causes of death in the country while carrying the highest costs for treatment.

How was it addressed?

Recognising that prevention is more cost effective than treatment and rehabilitation, ENHAS has taken extensive measures to ensure continued productivity of its employees through health training and services provided free or at a subsidized rate for its employees. Their programme currently covers approximately 2,200 people.

An annual budget of approximately USD 450,000 is spent to provide the following services for staff employees:

• Malaria prevention through the distribution of mosquito nets and training for staff, especially those who work the night shift when mosquitos are more present.
• Family planning and sexual education training is available for employees and teen sexual education training for the children of employees. The company also provides biannual workshops on reproductive health and contraceptive use for both male and female staff members.
• Free condoms available in staff washrooms and HIV/AIDS awareness training.
• The establishment of a dedicated hygiene officer in the company that oversees all health education and programmes.

What were the outcomes?

By making investments in health of its employees, ENHAS has seen its competitiveness and productivity increase. Higher worker productivity with lower turnover rates has allowed the company to ensure that its products and services are up-to-date and allowed the company to expand its product range to remain competitive in the market.

Since the introduction of the family planning and reproductive health training, the company’s staff now has an average of 2-3 children per family, much lower than the country average of 7 children per family. This has a great impact on the way women are able to contribute to the workplace and as a result, the female workforce is approximately half of the total staff with almost equal gender distribution of men and women in management positions at the company.