GFDD invited to visit Orsa Foundation in Brazil
Jari, Brazil, April 13, 2006

Responding to the invitation offered by Orsa Foundation (http://www.fundacaoorsa.org.br) of Brazil, our Projects Coordinator, Asunción Sanz, in representation of GFDD, visited their business operation, (http://www.grupoorsa.com.br) and their Foundation in Monte Dourado, on the margin of the Jari River.

During the visit, Sergio Amoroso, President of the Group Orsa and Foundation, and Patricia Casoy, Assistant to the President of the Board, explained on the ground their concept of corporate social responsibility, a belief that permeates all their sustainable business operations farming and managing wood, its derivatives and other products of the Amazon forest.

Orsa Foundation develops its activities in the areas around the industrial plants of the Group, working in the communities particularly with children and adolescents at risk and their families. Their programs include after-school activities, use of technology, health, capacity building and technical training, entrepreneurship initiatives and development of cooperatives, micro credit and environmental education.

They conduct their projects in an inclusive partnership with formal and informal local associations, land settlers, indigenous groups, collectors of indigenous fruits, members of the Landless Workers Movement, local and federal governments, and other private institutions operating in the area.

Participating in the visit was also Ricardo Young, President of the Ethos Institute, www.ethos.org.br, dedicated to mobilizing, sensitizing and helping companies to manage their businesses in a socially responsible manner, making them partners in the construction of a fair sustainable society, and Fabiane Stefano and Humberto Franco, from the Brazilian magazine, Rural Money, www.istoedinheiro.com.br.

Corporate social responsibility is one of the areas of interest to GFDD/FUNGLODE, deeply committed to its promotion and development in the Dominican Republic as a crucial element towards the sustainable social and economic of the country, http://www.globalfoundationdd.org/cpo_actividades95.html.