Grupo SOS is committed to corporate responsibility within the framework of sustainable economic development. By this means it includes in its corporate strategy a social undertaking to improve the conditions of its staff and of the neighbourhoods in which it conducts its activities, while guaranteeing the ongoing stability of corporate management.

The Group takes an active part in local development in the firm belief that this is a means of promoting progress, as expressed graphically in the following illustration.

For the Group, economic and social progress is moving in a manner that is creating a 'virtuous circle'. In it the various stages are both the beginning and the end of any ongoing process. Grupo SOS is conscious that its ability to influence these stages is high, and has therefore focused its attention on strengthening their multiple benefits.

 

This programme, directed in the main at developing countries where the Group operates production facilities, has practical effects at the following two levels:

• in our own facilities located in developing countries, where we can improve the working conditions of the members of our staff.
• in the neighbourhoods of those facilities, where we can work to help local children by means of schooling and shelter programmes.

We can thus talk about working on two dimensions: internally and externally. Of the achievements made so far we would highlight:

• Internal dimension: improving the labour conditions of women workers at the facility of Grupo SOS in Tunisia. Introducing in the date-processing facility in Nefta, in Tunisia, an equal opportunities programme designed to foster diversity of outlook and improve the working and social conditions of the workforce in general.
• External dimension: fighting directly against child poverty and illiteracy in Mexico. To this end Grupo SOS finances a number of supportive projects for children using schooling and access to shelter as a means of protecting their welfare and future. In this activity the Group works in close cooperation with the FESMAI Foundation, which is responsible for all local action as the executive arm of the partnership.