16 April, 2015 – ArcelorMittal has organised its fourth Solidarity Holidays in Prijedor, in northwest Bosnia where it has its mining operations, as part of the annual corporate responsibility (CR) project “Camp of Children’s Smiles”. This unique project brings together 100 elementary school children and their teachers from different ethnic backgrounds to learn about other ethnicities living in this post-conflict region through a set of educational workshops.
The children’s camp has been implemented in collaboration with the local NGO DON and the workshops are being held from 13 April to 17 April in the Kozara Mountain national park.
This year’s volunteering programme has gathered ArcelorMittal’s employees from Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, and the USA.
The project aims to develop children’s multicultural skills and teach them to understand and appreciate their ethnically-diverse community which is still healing from the consequences of the conflicts that occurred more than 20 years ago. As well as school activities, adapted to the outdoor surrounding, they also gain useful skills through interactive sports and art workshops and learn about environment, traffic, photojournalism and media.
“As the major employer in Prijedor, we are dedicated to supporting our local community and since our arrival 10 years ago we have implemented around 220 different projects as part of our Community Investment programme. Additionally, during the catastrophic floods that happened in our country last year, we have set up a special flood relief fund intended for the most affected areas. In such situations there are no ethnic division, and it is an important message to keep sending,” says Mladen Jelaca, CEO of ArcelorMittal Prijedor.
Speaking about the initiative, Alan Knight, general manager for Corporate Responsibility at ArcelorMittal explained: “This project is especially significant as it reflects the spirit of our multinational company and the Solidarity Holidays programme which engages people from different cultures who interact with colleagues from other countries and local communities other than their own. So far we’ve had some 40 international volunteers in Bosnia who have all contributed to this important initiative and we believe that such investment in these young people will bring long-term benefit for this community.”
About ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading steel and mining company, with a presence in 60 countries and an industrial footprint in 19 countries. Guided by a philosophy to produce safe, sustainable steel, we are the leading supplier of quality steel in the major global steel markets including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging, with world-class research and development and outstanding distribution networks.
Through our core values of sustainability, quality and leadership, we operate responsibly with respect to the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and the communities in which we operate.
For us, steel is the fabric of life, as it is at the heart of the modern world from railways to cars and washing machines. We are actively researching and producing steel-based technologies and solutions that make many of the products and components people use in theireveryday lives more energy efficient.
We are one of the world’s five largest producers of iron ore and metallurgical coal and our mining business is an essential part of our growth strategy. With a geographically diversified portfolio of iron ore and coal assets, we are strategically positioned to serve our network of steel plants and the external global market. While our steel operations are important customers, our supply to the external market is increasing as we grow.
In 2014, ArcelorMittal had revenues of US$79.3 billion and crude steel production of 93.1 million tonnes, while own iron ore production reached 63.9 million tonnes.
ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of New York (MT), Amsterdam (MT), Paris (MT), Luxembourg (MT) and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia (MTS).
For more information about ArcelorMittal please visit: http://corporate.arcelormittal.com/