SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The most important assets at Fazenda California are the people. Thus, employees and their families have access to education, as well as medical support, housing and transportation.
More than structure changes, procedures and processes, the greatest change that occurred at Fazenda California was behavioral. The attitude adopted in human resource management since 2004, was the establishment of successful partnerships such as with the Patronage Union of Jacarezinho and FAEP/SENAR system, approaching the year 2010 with the distribution of approximately 1,500 qualification certificates.
Through partnership with the Municipality of Jacarezinho, it was made feasible a program of evening literacy classes and high-school to the employees, who could return to school without feeling out of their farm environment and eradicated illiteracy among its employees. The social project called “Kids of the Coffee”, had the effect of removing, since 2007, the school failure of children living on the farm, a factor for employees pride and motivation.
The project has annually approximately 40 members, to whom the property provides daily tutoring classes and on Saturdays, practice of religious instruction and music classes. In 2011 the Choir Voices of St. Francisco was created. Children also learn concepts of civility and environmental education, acting as "junior agents" in promoting the sustainability in the day to day of the property as a whole and the local community in which they participate. In recognition of its potential to transform the community, Fazenda California often welcomes visitors whose aim is to learn about its history, technology and production system. Our visitors help to disseminate the concept of real sustainable agricultural production, contributing to the formation of a better world for the present and future generations.
LIGHT MISSIONARIES CHOIR
(CORAL MISSIONÁRIOS DA LUZ)
This incredible project, run in partnership with California Coffee Estates, aims at working with children and youth to show them the power of music, espe-cially in choir singing. Singing helps us promote many significant concepts, such as: learning to coex-ist with others and to harmonize, accepting and respecting others, promoting peace, and finally understanding the importance of ones heritage and culture. Recent studies have shown that choir singing plays an important role in the enhancement of the psychological wellness of singers, increas-es their self-esteem and self-confidence, trains them to become more disciplined, and increases their memory capacity. All these benefits of choir singing improve the general social skills of singers. The advantages of choir singing are numerous and their effects on children are extremely powerful on their general upbringing.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSABILITY
Ensure the preservation of forests and wildlife, prevent erosion
and protect water resources is our philosophy.
A sustainable production system is all this: a coffee garden surrounded by wild life and human development.
Fazenda California is in the process of adapting its management system to the Agriculture Network Sustainable protocol, in order to plead in 2012 to Rainforest Alliance certification. Thus, an environmental management plan is designed to guide the farm actions so that the property complies fully with the Brazilian environmental legislation. Reconciling the production of high quality food with preservation of the environment reflects the guarantee of quality of life for this and future generations. This is our commitment as human beings.
