The satisfaction of sharing and seeing the smiles of children was the main objective of a group of six workers from the Esmeralda mine, from Codelco's El Teniente Division, who organized a volunteer group to buy school supplies, toys and enjoy breakfast with first grade students from the Manso de Velasco school, in the commune of Rancagua.

“It's nice to help people in need, making someone happy doesn't cost anything,” said Pablo Vera, head of the Drilling and Blasting Crew at the Esmeralda mine. Along with him, operators Francisco Torrealba, Humberto Zúñiga, César Sandoval, Eduardo Silva and Sergio Pizarro, were the ones who formed this solidarity crew.

“Seeing the smiling faces of the children touched us deeply and the affection they showed us gives us the motivation to continue doing this. There are often prejudices against us and I feel that, with these actions, we are changing the way people sometimes view miners,” said Humberto Zúñiga.

A dynamic that they seek to continue

Pablo Vera says that the initiative was born out of the concern of the workers themselves. “We asked each other if anyone knew of cases of people who really needed support. So we agreed and quickly came up with help. We believe that there is a stigma in Rancagua towards miners and we feel that, little by little, this has been changing,” he said.

Along the same lines, operator César Sandoval adds that this is not the first time they have organized to provide support. A few months ago, as a team, they collected a financial contribution for a former schoolmate—who has vision problems—of one of the workers and, more recently, they bought construction materials for a shack for an elderly woman in Lo Miranda.

Without them even looking for it, the actions they carried out began to become known in the work area and both colleagues and bosses encouraged them to tell their experiences, which made some of them interested in joining future causes and, as a team, they are already organizing to schedule some more for this year-end.

“Personally, what motivated me to participate were the children, the affection they showed us at school was priceless. I am quite emotional and I was very moved when I saw the gratitude they had for us. This motivates us a lot to continue helping those who need it,” said operator Francisco Torrealba.