Yesterday I flew back to Medellin for some important meetings today with colleagues from the private industry, SENA and the Canadian government. The terminal of the domestic flights in Bogota is always a busy place. This is a country in "full movement".....
The view of Medellin from my hotel room this time. Time for a breakfast and the local news.
Some preparation with Juan Guillermo (my main "partner in crime" here in Antioquia, a 25 year veteran manager in SENA; great guy!) while enjoying a good cuppa Juan Valdez, and then on to the meeting hosted by GRAMALOTE, a joint venture company of Anglo Gold Ashanti (SA owned) and B2Gold (Canadian owned). They are working in a gold mining area 3 hours east of Medellin since ten years and have invested about 65 million dollars of which about 8 million on CSR work (Corporate Social Responsibility). The region had already for decades an artisanal mining culture but with very bad social and environmental side-effects. GRAMALOTE is the first formal company in the area. The team of GRAMALOTE took a lot of time with a team of about 30 professionals to sit down with the communities, to dialogue, to analyze and to slowly start training the people for a better future. Without going in too many details, it was telling that in this area - while in most regions of the country the "informal" miners were striking for better support and subsidies - the miners in the area of the GRAMALOTE sector had a meeting, decided they were doing well, made the meeting a social event and kept working all those weeks. Social change with winners all the way around...
I had arranged a meeting at the GRAMALOTE corporate offices for a delegation of the Canadian government. On the left the CEO of GRAMALOTE (a Chilean mining expert with a lot of experience and a deep belief in CSR) explained a bit of the history of the project.
Afterwards the HR Director gave more details, and Juan Guillermo explained how SENA teachers had been involved on request of GRAMALOTE.
I think it was an excellent exchange of experiences and ideas. To be followed by more, I hope.
My Colombian Mexican dinner was well earned tonight, I think...... :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment