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Canadian HC hails Barrick
2008-07-13 16:58:24
By Njonanje Samwel
Canadian High Commissioner Janet Siddall says she is impressed by initiatives by Barrick Gold Tanzania mining company to collaborate with residents from surrounding villages in scaling-up social development.
Siddall remarked this week when touring Barrick\'s North Mara Gold Mine at Nyangoto village in Tarime District, Mara Region, where she said that what she saw was different from what the media was portraying as an abandoned place.
The envoy called on other investors to be models of community engagement.
According to Siddall, joint initiatives taken by the mining firm and residents of the areas in designing, implementing and monitoring various development projects were impressive, calling upon both sides to maintain such spirit.
``I am very impressed with your collaboration spirit you are showing in every social aspect. This is a model of how investors need to stay with communities they are working with.
I call you to maintain such spirit and other investors to emulate what you do,`` she said.
Commenting on the presentation made to her by community leaders on the roadmap and how they are engaged, Siddall wished other investors in the country could involve the community in planning, pulling resources towards their plans and implementing together to ensure sustainability of the projects even after investment`s closure.
She met four women`s groups which North Mara Gold Mine empowers with entrepreneurship skills like embroidery, tie-and-dye, special groups of orphans and disadvantaged who get scholarship from the mine, youth groups empowered with various architectural activities and people with disabilities who have been given special education and training.
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