Radio 4 had an interesting subject for its In Business programme last week – the Santa Teresa Rum Company in Venezuela. The company operates in Aragua, an area blighted by high levels of gang-related violent crime and unemployment, and has taken an enlightened approach to tackling these social problems. Its initiative began in 2000, when a local gang attacked a staff member at the factory. Once arrested, the company offered the two men involved 3 months’ unpaid work as an alternative a jail sentence. The whole gang arrived the next day to start work. Thus began Project Alcatraz, which aims to help gang members ‘free’ themselves from a bleak future by offering them work experience and training that will re-integrate them into society. The project has catered for five gangs to date, which have effectively been ‘disarmed’, and seen the local incidence of crime fall by 40 per cent. This is a nice example of community investment that has grown in the ‘right’ way – not a programme decided on in boardrooms but, rather, a response to issues that were relevant to the business on the ground. It recognises that business doesn’t operate in a vacuum, but is heavily affected by the environment around it. It also gives us an unusual perspective on the idea of carrying out community investment to gain a ‘licence to operate’ – usually associated with multi-national mining and oil companies. In this case, however, playing an important social function has helped Santa Teresa to win support and legitimacy in a political environment that is otherwise prone to hostility towards business.
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