Last Saturday, April 13, 240 residents of social organizations from San Antonio, Doñihue, Machalí, Coya and Olivar started a new version of the program “Connecting with our heritage”, an event that seeks to preserve, disseminate and value the mining history of El Teniente and Camp Sewell, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, in 2006.
“Sewell is an expression of our purpose of contributing to the appreciation of the heritage and development of the territories where we carry out our operations, creating social value. Contributing to regional development and knowledge of mining through tourism activity is a source of pride,” added Cristián Sanhueza, director of Community Development of the copper company.
The camp is considered a heritage asset due to its mining-industrial, urban-architectural, and social-cultural area. Currently, thanks to the restoration work promoted by El Teniente Division and the Sewell Foundation, through Cultural Heritage Funds, the mining camp has renovated spaces that invite you to explore the history of the great copper mining.
Unforgetable experience
Soledad Ortega, director of the Doñihue Community Union, highlighted that “it was a very nice experience because some neighbors had lived or were born in Sewell and it was like reconnecting with their history. For others it was a dream to meet Sewell. So, seeing their faces, impressed with so much wonder, was exciting.”
“It was an activity that was experienced with a lot of emotion. We are neighbors of a vulnerable sector and this opportunity is sometimes not imaginable. That’s why we live it intensely and in many cases like a dream. We feel like we are breathing in history and validating why it is so important to take care of the heritage,” added María Soledad Astorga, leader of the Población Unidas neighborhood association in San Antonio.
For this year, the “Connecting with Our Heritage” program projects the visit of 12 thousand people, mainly members of neighborhood and community organizations; schoolchildren from the O’Higgins region; in addition to own workers, collaborating companies and their families.
In the case of social organizations, to participate they must apply through the community development area of their municipality.
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