TRES VALLES FOUNDATION PROMOTES
DEVELOPMENT WITHIN CÁRCAMO VALLEY
The community of Cárcamo, composed of northern, central and southern sectors, is a rural town located within the district of Illapel, located on the east bank of the Illapel River.
The Tres Valles Foundation is the social investment project of Minera Tres Valles, an organization whose purpose is to provide support in developing the initiatives that address the perceived needs of the communities within the Chalinga, Chuchiñí and Cárcamo valleys.
Year after year, the Tres Valles Foundation provides funds for the development and management of projects that hold great social relevance for the territory. The initiatives, which arise in unison to fulfill the interests of each sector, are produced by active social organizations that reside within the communities themselves.
Together with the community component, an essential element is that all funds are validated by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, which allocates the available resources for financing different projects based on a technical evaluation. The Board of Directors has a mixed composition, where three of the five directors belong to Community Representatives (one from each valley) and two directors are Minera Tres Valles Representatives.
Among the projects financed during the four work periods, construction and remodeling of social headquarters, churches and rural medical stations are performed. Additionally, sports and educational initiatives are developed and funds for various institutions’ equipment are provided.
Project Start Up Ceremony – Cárcamo 2019
Since its establishment in 2014, the Tres Valles Foundation has developed projects that are focused on improving the quality of life of the inhabitants of the Chuchiñí, Cárcamo and Chalinga Valleys. The initiatives produced by the communities represent requests for local development, which address issues such as education, health and infrastructure.
The projects developed by the organizations from the Cárcamo Valley have generated substantial changes in the territory. The Tres Valles Foundation has helped to plant important initiatives, such as purchasing land and building wells for the town’s drinking water supply. The projects have also improved the sewage system and replaced neighborhood and social group venues.
An important focus of investment has been collaborating with the Clemencia Villaroel School, an establishment that houses around 140 students that belong to different localities from the Illapel River Valley. The Center for Parents and Guardians has developed three structural projects, “Cárcamo Surfing Through Cyberspace”, “Cárcamo Sings and Rejoices with its Ranchers” and the “Eco-friendly School Cooperative”, which have all made a substantial contribution to the development of this scholastic community.
Last Thursday, June 27, students, teachers, directors, parents and supporters of the Clemencia Villaroel School held the closing ceremony of their projects, which aimed to generate a strategic change in the educational methodology, implementing ACTIONS in matters of connectivity, sustainability and the development of the arts.
“Cárcamo Surfing Through Cyberspace”, corresponding to the year 2017, was a connection project that promoted using information and communication technologies in the educational process, which through free Internet access has provided a great amount of information and knowledge to be used inside and outside the classroom. The investment consisted of installing a Wi-Fi network system, along with implementing digital literacy activities for all members of the Cárcamo community.
Additionally, “Cárcamo Sings and Rejoices with its Ranchers” was part of the 2017 investment fund and provided financing for the Cárcamo Rancher Festival, a traditional celebration held in town. The contribution made it possible to pay for the event, its technical implementation and prizes for the participants.
The “Eco-friendly Clemencia Villarroel School Cooperative”, belonging to the 2018 investment fund, has incorporated an environmental component into the teaching and learning process over different grade levels of the school. This initiative installed a recovery and reuse of gray water system for irrigation inside the facility as well as solar panels to generate renewable energy; reusable bags were also distributed among the students.
Yesica Araya, the 2018 president of the Center for Parents and Guardians at the Clemencia Villaroel School, remarked at the end of the ceremony that “we, and the previous board, are very happy and proud of what we have achieved through these projects. These advancements are reflected in our own children, who are concerned about their garden and keeping the biofilter clean. What we have created is great and we are deeply grateful to the Tres Valles Foundation.”
Armando Gonzalez, director of the Municipal Education Department of the Illapel district and the institution’s supporter, stressed the importance of “local third-sector organizations, in this case the educational community and the Tres Valles Foundation, working together to form projects that benefit the entire community, understanding that the school is an engine of development for its town.”
The Director of the Tres Valles Foundation and Representative of the Cárcamo community, Victor Hugo Villaroel, emphasizes that “the support and trust given by the Central Cárcamo, Southern Cárcamo and Quebrada de Cárcamo institutions were of vital importance for the management of these connection projects and eco-friendly cooperative. It was through them that prioritizing resources for the execution of educational initiatives was determined, making it clear how important they are for everyone in the community since the entire Illapel River Valley goes to the Clemencia Villaroel school.”
For Luis Vega, Minera Tres Valles’ CEO, “the implementation of projects linked to the social development of our communities, raised through executing initiatives in education and health, demonstrates our commitment as a company to local progress, creating opportunities for promotion that are relevant to the needs of our valleys and leaving a practical and lasting impact. Today at the school in Cárcamo, we gave the greenlight to two important initiatives that will directly affect the formation of future generations.”
Sebastián Cortés, Sustainability Manager of Minera Tres Valles and chairman of the board of the Tres Valles Foundation, said “these projects make a concrete contribution from Tres Valles to the territory, highlighting the cultural value of Cárcamo, connecting the children to development efforts, and promoting the academic performance of the school which has been demonstrated by the results obtained in national assessments.”
The projects awarded to the Clemencia Villarroel school were allocated funding of close to nine million Chilean pesos by the Tres Valles Foundation, this was in addition to the supporting contribution provided by the community and municipality.