The promotion of sustainable development of the neighbouring communities is one of the strategic principles that guide the Semapa Group’s activities. The Group has been aware at all times that sustainable growth depends on the wellbeing of its Employees, and on the support and ties it builds with the communities around its production and commercial activities.
The Group is, accordingly, involved in a wide array of initiatives designed in the last instance to improve the quality of life of the communities around its plants and facilities, and to preserve the environment.
Among countless activities and projects supported by the Group in 2021, the following are worthy of note:
• Support for the Fundação Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso: this foundation provides medical support to people in need, especially maternal care and child health care. It provided around 16,500 consultations for about 7,400 patients, a very significant part of whom are not in a position to pay for such services and would otherwise not have access to them;
• Support for Associação Salvador: this association works with physically disabled people, promoting the integration of people with physical disabilities and developing projects that meet their needs;
• At an international level, in 2021 Portucel Moçambique strengthened its areas of activity within the scope of the Social Development Programme, which covers several areas, promoting food safety, agriculture, livestock farming, apiculture, and fish farming, and in the area of improved well-being, health and school infrastructures, access to drinking water and energy, and roadways. As an example, Portucel contributed with 150 thousand dollars for the construction, which began in 2021, of an operating room at the district hospital of Ile, in Zambézia province, which will benefit several tens of thousands of inhabitants;
• Biodiversity conservation and safeguarding environmental sustainability continue to inspire the policy of Navigator, a forest-based company. Activities in this area include the sharing of knowledge, such as support for investment in multifunctional forestry projects and training programmes for improving the forestry industry, while others have an eminently social impact, for example, the provision of areas for grazing livestock (mostly local shepherds, this being their source of income) and for local beekeepers;
• In 2021, Secil continued to dedicate special attention to supporting the technical and scientific dissemination of knowledge in the Civil Engineering and Architecture fields, not only through the Secil Awards, but also sponsoring seminars, congresses, technical meetings, and the publication of scientific work in these areas of knowledge;
• Given the pandemic situation and the social needs that followed, Secil extended the support and volunteer activity with the Refood Portugal Association, which began in 2020 when the company commemorated its 90th anniversary. This commemoration, involving various activities, led to the establishment of a Corporate Volunteering Policy for Secil’s Employees who wish to volunteer in social activities carried out with the institutional support of Secil. A working group made up of the founding volunteers was established, which designed and presented a volunteer policy and its regulatory framework;
• Establishment of protocols for supporting and encouraging institutions that promote social, sports, and cultural inclusion in the communities in which the Group operates.