Young people from the Cartama province receive scholarships to lead the care of the forests in this region of Antioquia

• Grupo Argos, Aurelio Llano, Julio C. Hernández, Comfama, SENA, Cartama Province and La Pintada Concession foundations signed an alliance to develop the Semillas de Cartama project, which seeks to contribute to the development of Southwest Antioquia through training of young people for environmental care.
• This initiative joins the Cartama Project, whose objective is to recover the strategic ecosystems of more than 13,000 hectares of forest, for which it is necessary to develop labor capacities in the region.

The Semillas del Cartama alliance will train young people in the region so that, with their knowledge, they can be part of the job offer that will be presented through the Cartama Project, through which the recovery of the strategic ecosystems of the Southwest of Antioquia is promoted.

“Education is an engine of transformation that generates development and well-being in communities and that, without a doubt, contributes to the construction of a better country. Thanks to the sum of the wills of the allies, Semillas de Cartama is born today, an initiative to promote formal employment and education in the Southwest region of Antioquia ”, indicated Ana Mercedes Villegas, Executive Director of the Fundación Grupo Argos.​

In order to facilitate and support the generation of employment, the project will employ young people in the region, therefore, the Fundación Grupo Argos in alliance with the Julio C. Hernández and Aurelio Llano foundations, in addition to SENA, will deliver a first cohort of 16 scholarships for training in Environmental Technique. “The purpose of these trainings is to motivate students in the area to carry out their internships in the territory and that they can have a future job vision in the region,” said Ana Mercedes. Additionally, the allied foundations gave computers to the scholarship holders for connection and access to the necessary tools during their training process.

According to the Comfama employment agency, in the Southwest of Antioquia there is a record of 9,900 unemployed people, of which 80% do not have a training that allows them to find work. For this reason, the project seeks to strengthen the capacities of the beneficiaries through a program that connects the needs of the communities with the labor demand. In order to guarantee maintenance resources and ensure the formalization of the labor practice, the students will be linked to Comfama for six months.

The first cohort will carry out its practice in the territory as of October 1, which will allow the connection of the Cartama Project and the initiatives that the allies have been developing to an exercise of articulation with local mayors to impact and develop environmental programs that promote the development of the region and the conservation of strategic ecosystems, while providing educational and employment opportunities.

Through the generation of formal employment, the allies seek to contribute to the development of the Cartama province, in addition to contributing to the construction of the future, conserving a fragile ecosystem such as the tropical dry forest, of which, according to the Research Institute of Biological Resources Alexander von Humboldt, only 8% remains in the country.