Klabin’s good relationship with the community helps to define the various social support programs which are run in the towns where the company is operating. As a part of its policy of collaboration and partnership with these communities, initiatives cover a wide variety of fields such as health, social welfare, culture, technical and environmental education – and encourage volunteer work by employees.
Activities are coordinated by a Directorship of Social Responsibility, which runs the corporate programs and lends support to the individual plants’ initiatives, with community development as the principal goal.
Health – The Company makes monthly donations to public hospitals in Otacilio Costa and Correia Pinto in Santa Catarina and Telemaco Borba in Parana, which serve a population of approximately 100 thousand inhabitants. It also supports a hemodialysis unit, which serves the population of Telemaco Borba and surrounding area.
Culture – Klabin sponsors artistic and cultural events such as painting and photography exhibitions, theatre, cinema, music as well as the conservation of historical, artistic and cultural assets. Klabin is one of the sponsors of a restoration and modernization project for the University of Sao Paulo Medical School building listed as protected in 1981 by the Historical, Artistic, Archaeological and Tourist Heritage Protection Council (Condephaat).
It also sponsored the restoration of an original mosaic pavement in Ramos de Azevedo Square, in Sao Paulo city center, built in 1911 and also listed by Condephaat. Klabin is responsible for the upkeep of 12 sculptures by the Italian artist Luigi Brizzolara in the early 20th century in honor of the composer, Carlos Gomes, displayed in the square. This gesture is a demonstration of the support given by Klabin to the Associaçao Viva o Centro (Let the City Center Live Association), which promotes urban recovery in downtown Sao Paulo, and encourages partnership between local government, private enterprise and society.
The Company is also sponsoring restoration of the Nossa Senhora dos Remedios church, in Feira de Santana, Bahia, built in the late XVII century – the first building in the county. The church is a historical and architectural landmark with towers covered with tiles from Macao.
The Company also supports the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (MuBE) in Sao Paulo which organizes exhibitions of renowned artists such as Brecheret, De Chirico, Max Ernst, Cesar and Kcho among others.
Klabin Girls´ Choir is a socio-cultural project held in Monte Alegre and which contributes to the ethical and moral values and above all character-building of its members, daughters of Company employees. The group is made up of 38 young girls between the ages of 6 and 16 and was formed in August 2004. With a varied repertoire, the girls have sung in a number of Parana towns to audiences that total more than 4,000 people.
In partnership with the Quick Dance Company, Klabin promotes dance lessons in Betim (MG). This initiative, which started in 2004, already includes 40 needy children and adolescents from the area.
Sports – In 2005 Klabin sponsored a basketball team of children in wheelchairs, in conjunction with the Sports Association for the Handicapped (ADD), which promotes integration and inclusion of the disabled in society and at the workplace. The Company assumed responsibility for the team’s maintenance expenses, and donated uniforms for 20 children and adolescents with ages ranging from 5 to 18 in greater Sao Paulo.
In Goiana, Pernambuco, the Company sponsors the A Grande Jogada, an Indoor Soccer School for youngsters looked after by the Casa de Apoio a Criança Sao Pedro, plus some of our employees´ children. Currently 200 children are benefited by this project.
Fight Against Drugs and Violence – The Educational Program of Resistance to Drugs and Violence (Proerd) teaches students in the fourth and fifth grades in primary school in Correia Pinto, Santa Catarina. Promoted by the local Military Police, it has received support from Klabin.
Since 2002, the Company has collaborated with Movpaz, a movement that was founded in Bahia to encourage children and youngsters to participate in the activities of a studio that has been transformed into a clothing manufacturer with the brand Movpaz. In the last week of August 2005, this NGO organized lectures and meetings with the community in Ponte Nova (MG), to help them deal with violence. In support of the campaign for children’s disarmament, Klabin donated about 2 thousand toys made from corrugated materials stimulating children to swap toy weapons for objects that encourage creativity, team spirit, solidarity and citizenship. Right at the entrance to the “Tunnel of Life”, children handed over their violent toys. On the way out, they received an educational book plus a paper toy developed by Klabin, to be assembled and painted on the spot. Klabin also donated the corrugated boxes in which the toy weapons were deposited.
This was a project designed especially to support the Children’s Disarmament Campaign in Sao Paulo. Children received toy cars, board games and other fun, non-violent toys. This project encouraged fun and team games so as to generate positive attitudes among the children.
Support to Institutions - Klabin contributes in many ways to social welfare in regions where it has industrial operations. 1% of the income tax it owes is given to Funds for Child and Adolescent Rights, making it possible for Local Councils of Child and Adolescent Rights to develop projects that can improve the lives of thousands of youngsters. Support to institutions requires financial help for the upkeep of activities and the donation of paper. Every year around 15 tons of paper are donated to public schools, hospitals, associations and churches.
In the schools, the material is used in classroom assignments like posters, collage and handicrafts. Branches of the Association of Parents and Friends of Children with Special Needs (Apae) also receive help in the form of paper donations or of funds for upkeep. These children with special needs produce handicrafts with paper, and the money raised returns to the institutions. In Angatuba, Sao Paulo, funds were donated to build a warehouse where sociocultural activities will be held.
Among other institutions to receive support is Casas Andre Luiz, in Sao Paulo, which tends to about 1,400 people with special needs; the Lar do Irmao Velho, in Feira de Santana, Bahia, which houses 70 elderly in need; and the Padre Chico Institute for the Blind in Sao Paulo, that promotes training and education of children and pre-adolescents with seeing disabilities, to bring out the potential in each of them.
Education - Klabin sponsors the project called Growing up with Art, which works with 120 needy youngsters in the Morro do Turano slum, in Rio de Janeiro. Art workshops run by artist Daniel Azulay teach children to draw. The purpose is to use artistic education as a means of developing the participants’ self-esteem, thereby contributing to their role in society.