Building a Future

An agreement

The Executive Director of the Asociación Los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC) and District Mayor from Huasmin, province of Celendín , signed an inter-institutional cooperation agreement in order to finance jointly the construction of classrooms in three educational institutions in the villages of: Chilac N ° 08, Coñicorgue and El Lirio, which belong to the district of Huasmin.

This initiative is part of the combined efforts of ALAC, the Conga project and local government. With this agreement we can improve not only the schools infrastructure, but also the life and safety of many children.

District Mayor Huasmin expressed satisfaction with the signing of the agreement and emphasized that "the only way to achieve meaningful development results in the villages is by working together the public and private institutions."

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Beyond Cajamarca

As part of the Livestock Development Project, 41 producers from 16 villages in the area of influence of Conga did an internships in La Libertad, Lima and Arequipa.

With the aim of improving livestock production, participants received training on topics such as dairy cattle management, pasture production, animal health and milk quality.


Do you want to know more about this experience?

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Better stoves, better quality of life

The kitchen is one of the most important places in our house, because the daily menu for the family is prepared there and most of the housewives, in company of their children, spend a lot of hours of the day there.

In the kitchens of Celendin, people traditionally cook with firewood maintaining in this way the delicious and characteristic smoked taste of our Andes. But this also causes respiratory complications, pollution with toxic smoke, burns and other problems because of the bad conditions of some stoves in Cajamarca.

What does Conga suggest?

Improve the family economy and give more security to the families of Celendin without losing their tradition.

For that we have given till today 243 improved firewood stoves to the families participating in the project which thwart the lack of firewood, avoid the smoke, and reduce the time of cooking and the most important things: provide commodity and hygiene to the families.

An excuse

On 27^th of September, at the Primary Educative Institution of Quengo Rio Bajo, we organized a kermesse so that benefitted families and volunteers could fraternize. Likewise, the construction of stoves became an excellent opportunity to interact and have a good time knowing each other between the workers of the Mine Yanacocha /Conga Project and our neighbors.

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Conga´s recipe for dialogue

How to communicate with people?

In Conga we have designated days for dialogue: on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in Huasmín, Celendín and Sorochuco respectively.

These meetings attract hundreds of citizens to discuss issues of interest, such as those related to environmental work of modern mining in Cajamarca.

Citizens of the three districts have supported openly this dialogue initiative because it allows them to obtain information regarding mining issues, but also of initiatives to lay the foundations for sustainable development.

In these meetings participate:

Ramon Marchena Ortiz, a resident of Sorochuco:

"Because the information we receive is satisfactory for the knowledge of all of us"

Quiliche César Bolaños, a resident of Sorochuco:

"This is how the mining propose new alternatives for the development of its people. By the dialogue of settlers and mining representatives, both parts are satisfied”

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Mistura and native potato

Last week our colleagues from ADERS, attended Mistura´s food fair.

In a preferential location as the main product, more than 800 varieties of native potatoes from different regions of the country were displayed.

The producers of La Chorrera, Antonio Alaya Ortiz and Juan Tacilla Bolaños, were blissful to confirm that their product it´s in great demand and of their participation in the project of "Production of the commercial native potato "

This same project is being implemented in partnership with ALAC in the districts of Huasmín, Sorochuco and Encañada.

In the coming years, the producers within the Conga project will take part in MISTURA.

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More education

The quality of education not only depends on teachers, but of the commitment and coordination of all of us. Therefore, we have been promoting volunteerism with youth from different schools within the country.

In July, 10 young people from Markham school from Lima participated in this volunteer program along with other 13 students from Davy´s school from Cajamarca.

Together, students, parents and teachers, helped shoulder to shoulder in the repair and improvement of the infrastructure of a school in the hamlet of Agua Blanca, in the district of Sorochuco.

After extensive hours of work, the facade, doors, windows and the interiors of each of the classrooms looked restored. The access to the school as well as the sanitary facilities and drainage for rainwater were improved.

Reading for pleasure

Reading means more than just studying, it is a recreational activity. Thanks to all the volunteers we were able to renew the Educational Resource Centre with new textbooks, which will be useful to promote reading sessions under the name of "Reading for pleasure."

Authorities, teachers and the community in general, emphasized the team work, recognizing that actions like this should be replicated in other areas of the district.

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Could a mine promote development before starting to operate?

We have been working for the sustainable development in communities, despite the fact we have not become a mine yet. Why? Because we have a social and environmental commitment with Cajamarca.

We believe that sustainable human development is an approach which promotes fundamental skills of the people (education, health, income, civic participation, among others) and at the same time, train citizens to acquire high levels of autonomy.

There are a lot of cases we could share. At this time, we will introduce the case of the famous milk from Cajamarca.

Case 1: Healthy Cows = rich milk = quality dairy products.

We decided to work with dairy farmers in Cajamarca because they need more training and technical assistance. The aim is to improve the skills of dairy farmers in order to optimize their income and quality of life.

With this project, "Training and Employment Promotion in Dairy Cattle in Cajamarca", we have been able to train more than 8300 dairy farmers in the watershed of the Encañada, Cajamarca,Tumbaden and Conchan, also in the provinces of Cajamarca, San Miguel and San Pablo.

Thanks to the Fondo de Crédito para el Desarrollo Agroforestal (FONCREAGRO) which we are supporting, 870 families benefit from improved health conditions of livestock and plant improved pastures, among other services.Since the cows are the main source of milk produced in Cajamarca, we have implemented a preventive vaccination campaign and we have also boosted the registration and earrings of cows to optimize production.

Since the cows are the main source of milk produced in Cajamarca, we have implemented a preventive vaccination campaign and we have also boosted the registration and earrings of cows to optimize production.

Conga´s formula

How to contribute to human development for the dairy farmers to produce more milk of better quality?

• A strong and committed partnership with local actors
• A rich Credit Fund for Agroforestry Development (FONCREAGO)
• Intense training for dairymen
• Essential care for the cows (registration, vaccination and veterinary services)
• Good Pastures
• A lot of quantities of work committed to a long-term vision

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