Thank you, Kinross Toronto, for helping to raise $13,220 over the past month to help victims of a devastating flood in northern Chile. The Social Committee, led by Shelley Riley, Corporate Secretary and Vice-President, Office Services, quickly stepped into action, organizing bake sales, raffles and a silent auction, which included donated golf packages and tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.
“Our office in Toronto came together very willingly. We’re so pleased to be able to help in some way,” says Shelley of the effort, which will be matched by a donation from Kinross.
And that’s not all. Kinross is supporting The Proyecto Ser Humano Fundación (People Project Foundation), which sponsors local artists and performers in the area. The Fundación has been tailoring its programs to children who have been evacuated to state-run shelters.
Since the beginning of April, artists from the Fundación have been visiting shelters in Paipote, a village to the south of Copiapó, where our offices are located and home to many employees of our Maricunga and La Coipa mines. They have been entertaining the children with music, acrobatics, dancing, painting and acting. On Mother’s Day, a celebration with dance and music was organized at the shelter located in the Enami foundry.
Constance Holzapfel, Director of the Proyecto Ser Humano Fundación, said: “We are very excited to see the positive impact this is having on parents and for children. We appreciate the commitment shown by Kinross since the first week after the disaster. People affected by the weather event were very moved emotionally. “
The program is now being expanded from Paipote to Copiapó, which is being referred to locally as “Ground Zero” of the disaster. Guillermo Contreras, Manager of Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations for Chile, hopes that gradually, more parents will be able to participate, estimating that roughly a third of the children in shelters have been able to return home.
“Kinross remains committed to the sustainable development of the region, and particularly to the development of its youngest and most vulnerable. We are proud to be part of this project,” says Guillermo.
Erica Brown, Specialist, Document Controls and Legal intern Adriano Lepore survey the possibilities at a bake sale
Over the month of May, the map of Chile filled up
Musicians from the Ser Humano Fundación liven up a Mother’s Day celebration at the Enami foundry shelter
Link to video on the Proyecto Ser Humano Fundación (in Spanish)
