Friday, May 21, 2010
Sheryl's Collaborative Approach: Barrick Gold & World Vision Canada
In May 2003, Barrick Gold Corporation teamed up with World Vision Canada with residents in Peru with a collaborative approach to deal with poverty and education issues in the communities that surrounded the Barrick Gold’s mines in Peru. This collaborative approach that was set up by both organizations aimed to improve child health and growth as well as to solve the hunger issues in Peru. This is aligned to the Millennium Development Goals, one and four- eradicating poverty and hunger, improving child health.
Both organizations had a shared vision of helping the children in the communities be freed from the dangers of malnutrition and illnesses with access to clean water and education. Also, both organizations looked into the need of educating the mothers in the community who are identified to be the ones who played the role of feeding the children. 35 mothers were identified to be peer leaders who were told to attend workshops about essential food groups and the importance of feeding their children the right amounts of nutritious food to prevent malnutrition. These mothers in turn teach their peers- the local mothers- about the knowledge that they have learnt. With this, awareness had been raised about the importance of nutrition in children when they are young. In addition, up till date, nearly 200 households have also received training on how to establish home gardens to produce their own fruit and vegetables to generate income and allow them to be self-sustainable.
The process of this collaborative approach between both of the international organizations and the developing country, Peru, may not be as efficient in terms of time taken for results to achieved but it is indeed proven to be effective. From the beginning of the project, Barrick Gold initially committed a total of US$1 million worth of financial aid to help the impoverished families located in the community near its Pieneria mine. World Vision then complemented the funding received from Barrick through their child sponsorship program which helps nearly 3000 kids in the area. Its first program ended off with a success. Hence, subsequently in 2007, Barrick Gold then contributed another US$1.3 million for a similar project in a different community. Although success was only achieved in a period of 5 years, it was within the time frame that was promised to the communities and Barrick Gold, together with World Vision Canada did fulfill their promise though slowly, but steadily.
This approach has helped the communities to be self-sustainable through earning their own income from selling fruit and vegetables that has been produced by themselves. It allows them to gain ownership of the aid that they received and also allows them to be accountable to both their partner organizations Barrick Gold and World Vision Canada.
We Loved10:20 AM
April 2008 past