Our social management department dedicated 2016 to education
and entrepreneurship. We committed to supporting the government’s
goals of peace building and educating children at their schools to have zero
tolerance towards aggression.
Moreover, we encouraged the creation and strengthening of small and family
owned businesses as a tool for social and productive inclusion. In our
opinion, families with higher and stable incomes become more favorable
environments for reconciliation and forgiveness. The following are four
social projects we are proud to share;
• Citizens for peace: We are using body expression workshops to
encourage the development of attitudes and skills that help prevent
mistreatment in the school environment of those Educational Institutions
located in urban and rural areas of the municipalities of El Reten and
Aracataca, which are the areas where we have our production units.
Throughout 2016 we have completed the participation of 240 children of
primary and early secondary school in the above mentioned activities.
• Training children and youngsters in organic farming at FDI Buenos
Aires
We have used our palm oil plots as open classrooms in which young students
learn how to grow vegetables and short-cycle agricultural products,
following sustainable and organic farming techniques. This enables children
to learn how to grow products and preserve natural recourses during the
production process. The vast majority of these children are members of
families coming from vulnerable populations.
• Food security and entrepreneurship with families from La Guajira,
Magdalena and Santander Departments.
Over 80 families from the departments of Magdalena, Guajira (Colombian
Atlantic Coast) and Santander (Central Area, on the Magdalena riverside)
participate in the food security and entrepreneurship program. This secures
their food production – vegetables, legumes and aromatic plants in
order to enhance their nutritional diet and also allow them to produce some
surplus that could be sold to generate household income. These vegetable
gardens also follow sustainable farming methods.
• Entrepreneurship at school This program supports young students from
low-income families in their last years of high school at the Educational
Institution of the city of Santa Marta. The students participate in a
program called, “A More Entrepreneurial Youth”, designed to
foment an entrepreneurial culture from school age onwards. Students and
teachers are trained, the former in preparing business plans and the latter
in teaching entrepreneurship.
After a year of training, the best business plans go through a viability
study and receive the benefits of DAABON’S Microcredit Fund. They
receive capital seed funding and business training, which enables them to
engage in entrepreneurial activities. If the students are still underage
when reaching this stage, the loan is received by their parents, on the
understanding that the student will keep on receiving practical training in
the family business.
