By MARTIN MUSUNKA –
FIRST Quantum Minerals (FQM) Kansanshi Mining Plc has designed regular mine site visits for local communities and corporate bodies to understand the global miner’s operations in the on-going stakeholder engagement plan.
The mine visits, which are coordinated by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department, and conducted every Wednesday and Thursday, draw participants from a cross section of communities and institutions in Solwezi and beyond.
CSR manager Bruce Lewis, who has been instrumental in devising community engagement activities, says FQM is determined to effectively build “honest and mutually beneficial” relations between the mine and the communities.
Mr Lewis said the company was happy about the positive feedback received from the community from the weekly site tours.
Before undertaking mine tours, all the participants were subjected to a pre-site visit lecture by the CSR department at Kansanshi Foundation Training Institute where discussions targeting values, needs and interests of the members of the community were shared.
At last week’s lecture, the entourage was taken through the concept of village banking, and a motivational talk on the importance of education and gender-based violence which drew much enthusiasm from participants.
The participants were also given a safety talk as basic knowledge prior to the tour of the mine.
Kansanshi CSR monitoring and evaluation officer Gehane Ntaimo outlined the benefits of the village banking concept for the people in the communities and urged those present to make full use of the facility.
The village banking model of micro-finance is a ‘self-help’ innovation which encourages members of the same locality to select themselves with a view to save money and lend each other cash for start-up capital or expanding existing enterprise.
This model helps inculcate an attitude of financial management at individual, family and community levels at large.
Sante Mulumbi, from the Youth Alliance for Development, appealed to the women in the group to ensure that they did not disadvantage their children in pursuing their educational goals.
She said women should also endeavour to identify meaningful activities that would help them sustain their livelihood.
Young Women’s Christian Association counsellor Zephaniah Mwanza emphasised the need for women and men to rise to the occasion to defeat all issues that perpetrate GBV.
And Kansanshi Mining CSR assistant officer Best Kakusa said during the tour of the mine that research conducted had shown that the regular mine visits were adding value to the operations of the company. Before the initiative, members of the communities had scanty appreciation of FQM’s operations.
