Excerpts from a message that Joe G. sent to ILR.
The program has been great with Eithel Manrique, from Universidad Catolica San Pablo, bringing in very knowledgeable people to discuss corporate and social responsibility issues in the mining sector. For example, he had a former Director of CSR at a Peruvian company talk about some horrendous problems in the north of Peru in Cajamarca. She is an expert on CSR in the mining sector and is now working with the Canadian Embassy to improve things. We then heard from a person who ran for the Governor of the State of Arequipa in November, but lost. He was an anti-mining candidate and discussed public policy issues. We then visited Cerro Verde’s Offices, the largest copper mine in the world, and spoke with the Director of CSR there.
This mine is owned by Freeport McMoRan
from Arizona, and they have some very good programs in place and underway to
help the community (water treatment plants, schools, micro-finance programs for
women, etc.)
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| Left to right: Erica, Amy, Amanda and Giovanni. |
The program has been great with Eithel Manrique, from Universidad Catolica San Pablo, bringing in very knowledgeable people to discuss corporate and social responsibility issues in the mining sector. For example, he had a former Director of CSR at a Peruvian company talk about some horrendous problems in the north of Peru in Cajamarca. She is an expert on CSR in the mining sector and is now working with the Canadian Embassy to improve things. We then heard from a person who ran for the Governor of the State of Arequipa in November, but lost. He was an anti-mining candidate and discussed public policy issues. We then visited Cerro Verde’s Offices, the largest copper mine in the world, and spoke with the Director of CSR there.
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| ILR and TDTU students meeting with the Director of CSR |
Each day the 5 Peruvian students get together with our 4
students to work on a policy brief in three areas of CSR (environment,
economic, and social). This policy brief effort has been a great way to
have the Cornell and UCSP students get to know each other. We have
learned amazing things about Peruvian society, politics, economics, and
culture. This coming week, the group will continue to meet with experts,
visit with other mining companies, and complete their policy briefs and present
them to a CSR Director at a mining firm.
This weekend, Eithel took us to Colca Canyon, the deepest
canyon in the world. We had a great time seeing this beautiful area and
tried to see Condors at about 16,000 feet. More importantly, we saw how
poor, rural Peruvians live as subsistence farmers and how harsh the terrain
is. We visited a number of small towns and enjoyed the day and evening
together.
Our entire Cornell group, Giovanni Sanchez, Amanda Maya, Amy
Saz, and Erica Freeman, along with Eithel Manrique, have really enjoyed
learning about Peru and CSR, getting to know the students from UCSP, and
getting to know each other. We’re grateful to ILR and UCSP for making
this happen.
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