Protecting workers in a changing climate
La Isla Network is the leading global occupational health research organization and consultancy dedicated to protecting workers in a warming world. We are generating, supporting, and executing evidence-driven solutions to protect workers from heat and other occupationally acquired injuries and illnesses, especially those driven by climate change. In the process, we work closely with employers and workers to understand the specific contexts of their industry to adopt the gold standard of worker protections to the reality of their site-specific situation. We work collaboratively with decision makers to improve working conditions, support worker health, and create tailored policies and procedures to ensure occupational protections are being adequately and effectively implemented at all levels.
Mission
We are generating, supporting, and executing evidence-driven solutions to end the fatal CKDnT epidemic by understanding the scale and impact of the disease and its causes. In the process, we are improving working conditions and supporting the creation and enforcement of policies required to protect those affected.
Vision
We envision a world in which all workers at risk of CKDnT are protected and what we have learned through our efforts is adapted to protect other groups facing public and occupational health crises.
Organization
La Isla Network evolved from La Isla Foundation in 2016. The organization’s name comes from a community in Nicaragua where so many men have died of CKDnT that locals call it ‘La Isla de Viudas,’ or The Island of Widows.
For eight years, a team of La Isla Foundation specialists in public health and human rights have worked in Nicaragua to generate knowledge about the causes of CKDnT and develop strategies to confront it locally. These strategies include disease prevalence studies and labor rights assessments, clean water well installations, and alternative skills training programs. Simultaneously, the Foundation brought the world’s attention to the CKDnT crisis, facilitating reports by major media outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian (UK), Al Jazeera, and National Geographic.
In 2014, La Isla Foundation assembled a multi-stakeholder team under the banner of the Worker Health and Efficiency (WE) Program. WE is a collaborative initiative that brings together the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), leading occupational health experts, policy-makers, universities and sugar producers to find and execute solutions to the problem of CKDnT.
After publishing the first results of the WE Program in 2015, La Isla Foundation split into two organizations: (1) Fundación Comunitaria Isla, the local Nicaraguan NGO that independently remains focused on local community development; and (2) La Isla Network, the international civil society organization focused on achieving macro-level change across continents.
