Celebrating Twenty Years of Commitment in Northwestern Argentina

From the very beginning, our challenge consisted in promoting actions for the development of children and young people from the communities in Northwestern Argentina. Every year, we redouble our efforts so that better opportunities can arise every academic year and classroom work can be strengthened in rural schools.

Fundación Vicente Lucci is a nonprofit organization which was created in 2003 as an expression of the commitment and social responsibility inherited from Grupo Lucci’s founder, Mr. Vicente Lucci. Its aim is to promote the development of the rural communities in Northwestern Argentina.  

Our actions are part of Grupo Lucci’s social investment. We work with the commitment to children, young people and adults’ future and education in order to contribute to the fair and equitable development of our communities of influence. In this way, with our programs, we have an impact on 40 rural schools in the provinces of Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Salta and Catamarca.

What Have We Done during these 20 Years?

Throughout the past 20 years, we have consolidated our Foundation and got actively involved in the local realities of the areas of influence of the company’s assets.

At the beginning, its activity was limited to satisfying a specific need by means of economic contributions or donations; for example, donations of trainers to a soup kitchen or on a special occasion such as Mother’s Day or Children’s Day. “We have evolved and made our business contribution to local communities more professional, through the development of corporate social responsibility actions”, said Patricia Condorí, Head of the CSR Department at Grupo Lucci.

Patricia Condorí, responsable del área de RSE de Grupo Lucci. 

Later, we forged different institutional alliances with the Ministry of Health of the province of Tucumán and funded cleft palate surgeries. We worked with the National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA), where communities were taught how to make small vegetable gardens in order to cultivate the land and harvest their own food. Apart from this work in the health and agriculture sectors, we worked on a cultural level, since there was a space for big and small, local and national artists at our first main office.

In this way, the first courses of action of corporate social responsibility (CSR) were established.

“In 2007, we carried out a social diagnosis and three basic needs were identified with opportunities for improvement in the communities: education, health and employment. We aligned our management and alliances to develop programs, giving priority to values education and labor inclusion”.

Patricia Condorí

As part of the Foundation’s growth, for 5 years, we have been working on promoting entrepreneurship as an agent that generates development and local genuine work. We gave training courses to rural entrepreneurs together with specialized organizations such as Universidad del Norte Santo Tomás de Aquino (UNSTA) and its teaching staff of Entrepreneurship, the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (FACET) and its program “Económicas Emprende”, as well as public and private agencies that provide new means for entrepreneurship projects to grow.   

Joint Work to Get Better Results

“We noticed that networking is beneficial and that, through different institutional interactions, we got better results in the communities, forging alliances with specific entities which have provided quality contributions. Our program beneficiaries can have access to updated contents, interact with different participants, improve their self-esteem and make progress in their projects”.

Patricia Condorí

Volunteering: Social Commitment

Corporate volunteering is a triple-impact tool that adds value to the environment, the company and its collaborators.

In the case of Fundación Vicente Lucci, corporate volunteers come from all Grupo Lucci’s companies. In 2022, 51 collaborators participated. The Foundation’s Head mentions: “By means of volunteering, our collaborators can learn about the context of the communities where we produce and, as a result, build groups, have the opportunity to interact with other sectors and share their experiences in the schools”.  

External volunteers also benefit from their participation in these experiences, since they do their internships. From her experience, Vittoria Medina, a sophomore studying Human Resources at Juvenil Instituto Moderno (JIM), said that she decided to join in order to share her knowledge with the children. “This enables me to develop my skills as a future professional. Sharing the workshop teaching with other partners as well as children and young people enriches me in every possible way”, states Vittoria. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE81Z16pxVo

Jorge Alderete, a volunteer from Instituto JIM, states: “it is a significant space for both professional and personal growth”.

Lara Valentina Molina, a volunteer from Instituto San Miguel, also gave her opinion: “it serves as a space for carrying out teaching training practices and it shows us what we should expect as teachers in the future”. 

Other Impact Protagonists:

Iván Montenegro, a student at Escuela Agrotécnica Soldado Cajal, mentioned: “Learning how to work the field, crop differences, rotations and good practices gives us a perspective that we do not have at school”. Iván participated in the Open House Program. 

Ana Krautmann, student at the English teaching training course, did her internship at Instituto San Miguel: “seeing the children’s reactions when we arrive at the schools is a gratifying experience. What we learn from all this is unbelievable. Rather than a professional practice is a life lesson for us”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlXNsNSnOFM

High School Scholarship Program

Through this program, which was carried out together with Banco BBVA, we aim at reducing school dropout, absenteeism and repetition rates, as well as improving young students’ academic performance.

Lucas Tolosa, a student from the 6th year at Escuela B° Aeropuerto, was granted a scholarship and said: “it helped me become a better student and buy school objects that I need every day”.  

Gonzalo Sequeira, a student from the 6th year at Escuela B° Aeropuerto, pointed out that “the scholarship, apart from giving me the possibility of buying school objects, helped me contribute money at home. It also helped me when we had online lessons and I needed Internet connection to attend them”.  

Enrique Lemme, Escuela B° Aeropuerto’s Principal, added: “through this program and with the teachers’ help, we teach students about the importance of learning how to use their resources and it helps them complete their studies”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQKjxitSgU4

New Initiatives

Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) Program

Through this initiative, we aim at strengthening the following values: Commitment, Responsibility and Effort in order to improve and build responsible promoters of sustainable actions for our local communities. During the workshops, which take place with students in school communities, there are also courses for planting native trees together with graduates from each school year.

Fundación Vicente Lucci Nursery

In 2021, together with specialized professionals, we built a nursery of native and forest plants from the area, which were previously chosen based on the regional potential. These species have been carefully looked after, and through this initiative, we want to afforest Tucumán and provide our environment with more natural resources.

• 1,000 trees were planted at schools.  
• 780 trees were donated to communities.
• 500 trees were donated to Conscientes.

The Legacy

“For over 20 years, we have been committed, as Argentine businesspeople, to integrating our Group’s purpose, which is to produce in a sustainable way and leave our transforming mark. We add value and we want to ignite awareness in new generations for a better world. We learn more if we do it together and, in this way, our impact in our local communities is exponential”.

Daniel Lucci, Presidente en Fundación Vicente Lucci 

“We are deeply convinced that, through education, we can achieve better societies, and, honoring our father, at Fundación Vicente Lucci, we promote actions to enhance education, strengthening our unwavering commitment to Argentine society.”

Pablo Lucci, Secretario en Fundación Vicente Lucci 

Future Challenges:

We want to deepen the work we have been doing for 20 years, renewing our actions, interacting with new participants and strengthening our bonds with the communities related to our operations.