Adapted from Beyondthemine.com
Many educational experts believe that promoting an entrepreneurial culture among youth is the basis for creating a future society capable of sustainable economic growth.
Throughout the world, organizations are promoting an entrepreneurial culture among schoolchildren. This culture enables children to gain the confidence and ability to create their own business and also, in a broader sense, to take charge of their own futures and share in the responsibility of community development.
In Peru, the Asociación Los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC), the Junior Achievement Internacional Peru, and Ferreyros SAA and Buenaventura Ingenieros SA (BISA) signed an agreement to establish a strategic alliance to co-finance and execute the "Creation of Young Entrepreneurs in Cajamarca."
Newmont's Yanacocha operation founded ALAC in 2004 to provide an organization that would be representative of both the community and company to provide a broad range of activities to facilitate and support long-term economic development of the region during, and very importantly, after the mine closes.
ALAC, along with its partners, is supporting the "Creation of Young Entrepreneurs in Cajamarca" program to promote an entrepreneurial attitude, a better understanding of the free market economy, and career possibilities among the schoolchildren of the region. Junior Achievement Internacional Perú is administering the three-year program with a budget of US$429,675, targeting 11,000 schoolchildren from public and private schools in the province.
Despite the many benefits mining has brought to the Cajamarca region, ALAC is working to overcome several issues that continue to impede further economic development. For example, agriculture, the primary industry in the area after mining, faces challenges related to the division of land, poor-quality soil and lack of irrigation water. These issues make it even more important to support the entrepreneurial drive of young people so the economy can continue to grow and diversify.