Distance Learning and Healthy Living During the Pandemic

SQM and the educational and social organizations with which it partners to develop educational and social integration programs are promoting a series of activities designed to allow users and beneficiaries to continue to participate in those initiatives. The activities include online classes, social media workouts and gardening workshops delivered using video calls.

One of the lines of action that SQM has strengthened during the health crisis is support for education in the communities located near its operations. The goal is to provide continuity to the projects that the company promotes in collaboration with various institutions and to encourage users to stay at home and protect themselves from the spread of COVID-19.

The mining company has supported the ViLTI SeMANN initiative since 2015 in Tocopilla and for the past two years in María Elena. It contributes to students’ cognitive development through innovative teaching methods and strategies, and has shifted from traditional, in-person classes to online work. The initiative promotes the development of skills through methodological work using a virtual platform, preparing students to address various issues and conflicts using scientific thinking, to learn about robotics through apps and to improve their scientific literacy.

Reading and play are crucial to children’s cognitive and emotional development during the early education stage. Parents must support and interact with their children, developing and strengthening these elements in boys and girls. To this end, SQM and the Chushuenco Educational Foundation have prepared the “I Learn with You” program, which works with children between the ages of three months and four years.

The initiative is focused on three areas: family participation, acquisition of play and reading skills and techniques, and decreasing parent stress. Chushuenco seeks to contribute to the quality of early education for at-risk children in Chile by managing early childhood education programs, executing continuing education programs and supporting programs managed by third parties.

The Mr. Barber Foundation focuses on creating home gardens. The idea is to select homes that have a small space available for gardening and households with older adults or individuals with disabilities given that these projects have a significant impact on residents’ quality of life. In addition to promoting healthy eating, they engage participants in an educational process and provide an opportunity to get closer to nature through gardening and harvesting in the context of the pandemic and family confinement.

SQM’s Director of Communications, Sustainability and Public Affairs, Pablo Pisani, observed, “Today’s world is marked by a growing presence of new information and communication technologies, which have an undeniable impact on society in such diverse areas as family, work and education. As such, these initiatives are incredibly important for helping the families in our municipalities to stay at home as much as possible and, in doing so, spend time on these activities, which help to reduce both physical and mental stress.”

Shared Perspectives

The SQM volunteer program “Lend a Hand to Your Community” has been supporting the Miradas Compartidas (Shared Perspectives) Foundation for the past two years. The entity promotes various sports and cultural initiatives in order to socially integrate children and young people with intellectual challenges.

In order to provide continuity to this initiative, CrossFit, training, soccer and theater classes are being offered through social media platforms (@micropartidas). The activities also include conversations with a wide range of figures from the worlds of arts and athletics, including Monserrat Ballarín, Candela Anton, Gustavo Dalsasso, Carlos Díaz, Chapita Fuenzalida, Dayana Amigo and Emilia Noguera. This initiative is open to the community.