GAC and capacity building

Guinea Alumina Corporation "GAC SA" a major Guinean mining company has initiated a program of functional literacy, which incorporates “Income Activity Generating” (IAG) support throughout the whole of its concession in Sangarédi and Kamsar, as a framework for community capacity building. In this way, community members can reinvest their gains, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of their local community.

With this ambitious program, 1447 “learners”, including 725 women, have learned to read and write in 44 centres that were opened for this purpose. To date, twenty of these literacy groups have already benefited from the support of 20,000,000 GNF each for the implementation of different IAGs.

From 25 September to 4 October 2017, from Kamsar to Sangarédi, learners from four centers have been trained in “saponification” (soap making) and have received the necessary equipment to facilitate the manufacture of soap. In addition to soap factories, other IAGs have been launched, these include: 10 rice growing projects, two in market gardening, one is solar salt making, and three in the cultivation of peanuts (including the acquisition of hullers, mills, motor pumps and other equipment).

This program of in-house literacy was started in 2016 thanks to the expertise of the NGO, DVV International, which is represented in Guinea by CADES. These projects will benefit the learners by providing proficiency skills from production through to commercialization, assisted by nationally renowned trainers. In addition to technical learning, beneficiaries will be provided with support in simplified accounting, in project monitoring and real-life associated management.

As testified by one of the beneficiaries in Kamsar: "This program is real, it’s one of the best initiated by GAC for local communities. Combining literacy to a generic Activity Income Generator is a sure way to improvement the living conditions of the people.”

With this initiative, GAC is demonstrating its determination to support the development of local communities.