Sustainable Project in “27 de Octubre” Community of Chimbote

By mid-2011, COPEINCA made contact with the Stromme Foundation and the NGO Tierra de Niños with the aim of evaluating sustainability projects with surrounding communities. The company wanted to contribute toward the development of the surrounding families near the Chimbote industrial plant. They began working together in order to define a meaningful strategy for the future of the “27 de Octubre” residents.

In order to establish appropriate lines of action, they proposed the development of a Participatory Social Diagnosis in order to promote dialogue with key community groups to identify and analyze their problems, needs, practices, knowledge, feelings, attitudes, and perceptions regarding development issues. With these diagnosis outcomes, we shared the information with the community to set the path for the prioritization of activities.

To ensure that development plans were articulated with the community, we decided to support them in developing their Local Development Plan, linking it with the District Development Plan and Regional so they could align national policies and budgets and the “27 de Octubre” community could be included formally in local priorities. We also designed a training plan to develop sustainable social management skills and leadership in the leaders and people of the community – in 2012 more than 10 working sessions were held in order to strengthen the bond with them. Within this plan, needs and interests were considered and prioritized. After establishing benchmarks and indicators to measure each project, they voted, validated, and chose to work in the following:

The progress of these projects is the just the beginning of many successful future activities for this prosperous community – and COPEINCA is proud to be able to support them.