The way in which Las Marías proactively and responsibly approaches its commitment to the care, health, development and education of children and adolescents is reflected in the concrete actions that run through its history and are still in force today.
Started in 1943, it promotes sports as a means for people to develop individually and socially, while enjoying recreation. Among the sports practiced and taught are: soccer, field hockey, basketball, handball, volleyball, paddle tennis, tennis, canoeing, swimming, athletics and children's rugby.
In addition, the Club is a space that contributes to promote the integration of Las Marías workers, their families, the community of Virasoro and nearby towns within a framework of promoting human values.
Sportsmen and Women
Children and young people
Adults
Sports
Complementing the proposal of Club Taragüi, working together with the Human Resources area, the Vacation Camp receives more than 100 children per season. The objective is to create a space for children to share sports, social and recreational activities in an environment of integration and high reliability.
It is a benefit for the families who work at Las Marias and for the members of the Club, which allows them to turn their holidays into a rewarding period for the children and the whole family.
It was founded in 1945 to provide free primary education to the children of the workers' families who lived in the establishment at that time. Today it is also open to children from the community of Gobernador Virasoro and offers quality education to children from 4 years old until the completion of elementary school. Approximately 400 children attend and more than 4,000 have graduated from the program.
Graduates
Students per year
Establecimiento Las Marías actively collaborates with several community institutions. Among them, and since its inception in 1958, the Victor E. Navajas Centeno Popular Library, which promotes reading and culture in the population of all ages, especially among the youngest. This was reflected in 2023 in the attendance of 4,971 users, 700 children and their caregivers at the baby library, the withdrawal of 4,231 books for reading and 2,751 visits from students and teachers.
Users
Book withdrawals
School visits
Among the entities that Las Marías supports on a monthly basis is CONIN Virasoro. Since its creation in 2005, more than 650 children from 0 to 4 years of age have been removed from the risk of child malnutrition. In 2023, it benefited more than 40 children and 30 mothers, who incorporate knowledge that also helps them with their children who do not attend CONIN. In addition, Las Marías collaborates in different ways and practically since its creation with Special School 16 and the nursery schools Pequeño Mundo and Niñorhupá. More than 100 children attend each of these institutions.
In these and other institutions in Virasoro, many collaborators or former collaborators of Las Marías participate actively as volunteers, with donations in kind or money, or in their leadership. We are proud to see how they share the values of Las Marias, trying to improve the community they are part of.
Created in 1965, it is one of the oldest donor foundations in the country and its activity is focused on education. The Victoria School, the Víctor Navajas Centeno Agrotechnical Institute, the Pablo Navajas Artaza Professional Training Center and the Educational Projects are under its orbit. It develops its actions individually and also in alliance with public and private institutions committed to education, both nationally and internationally.
Las Marías' commitment to its community was embodied in the creation of the Foundation.
Since 1968, it has sought to complement a technical education of excellence, enriched with practical experiences, with training in values. It promotes the development of the region's young people by expanding their opportunities, improving their chances of finding employment in disciplines that favor local development.
The current academic offer is made up of two Higher Technician Programs: in Agricultural Production and in Wood Industrialization, and its graduates have a high specific labor insertion in companies of the region. In 2018 IAVNC certified ISO 9001:2015, for the Educational Quality Management System.
The objective of the institute is to promote the development of the region's youth.
A Social Service department has been operating at Las Marias since the 1970s. Its objective is the social promotion of families (workers, spouses and children) through accompaniment and counseling during a multiplicity of stages and issues that occur throughout the life of a family; from pregnancy, childhood, school, health, housing, retirement, etc. The situation of children, within the framework of family assistance, is a priority and special efforts are made to facilitate and resolve all situations affecting them, especially the most sensitive ones: health, disability and education.
The Social Service area has as its objective the social promotion of families.
Las Marias develops a Pediatric Control program for the children of its working community.
Since the beginning of the program in 1987, more than 3,000 babies have been monitored. Even the Las Marias Pediatric Plan has been recognized as a "Model of Child Health Protection" by the Growth and Development Service of the Garrahan Hospital in 2001.
Children have benefited
Controls were performed
from January 2018 to March 2023
The main objectives of the program are:
Promoting and taking care of the development of employees' children and grandchildren from birth to the first year of life.
Encouraging the development of healthy habits for the mother and child, with special emphasis on the promotion of breastfeeding.
Promoting vaccination according to the National Immunization Program.
Early detection of any distortion factor for its prompt resolution.
In March 1996, the Permanent Labor Training Center was created to provide training and improve the labor skills of workers, operators, foremen, supervisors and entrepreneurs, in order to broaden their possibilities for labor insertion, participation in regional development, and personal and social growth.
People trained
Courses delivered
In December 2012, the General Direction of Private Education recategorized the institution and it was renamed Pablo Navajas Artaza Professional Training Center. Its current educational offer covers forestry, livestock, agricultural and industrial areas. Since its creation, it has trained more than 17,000 people in forestry, forestry-industrial and agricultural activities.
In 2018 it certified ISO 9001:2015, for the Educational Quality Management System.
Their objective is to promote educational initiatives in the areas of influence of Corrientes and Misiones, where the Las Marías Group operates. It does so through a program that includes different proposals for teacher and student training at all levels: pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary.
Target
schools
Teachers
Participants
Students
Benefited
We are convinced that better teacher training leads to better quality education. And the latter has its correlation both in the better quality of education of children and in the lower dropout rate.
Las Marías integrates the family of its employees from day one, and seeks a work-family balance, knowing that both areas are enhanced if they are fully developed.
As a result of its work in this area, Las Marías is an initiating member of the IFREI Club, aimed at companies that implement policies or programs to improve the quality of life of their employees and their families. In addition, it actively collaborates with this organization by extending its activities in the interior of the country. In 2011, it received the award called “Hacia una Empresa Familiarmente Responsable” ("Towards a Family-Responsible Company”), granted by the Proyecto Padres-IAE-Standard Bank Foundation, in relation to the Pediatric Control and Breastfeeding Promotion program.
“Hacia una Empresa Familiarmente Responsable” ("Towards a Family-Responsible Company”) award, granted by the Proyecto Padres-IAE-Standard Bank Foundation
In line with its work for the promotion and care of children, Las Marias is committed to efforts to eradicate child labor. This is a scourge that is still present in sectors of the yerba mate industry that do not have an environment of containment and care for children and families; an environment that Las Marías has ensured since its origins.
We work jointly with the National Commission for the Eradication of Child Labor and the Network of Companies against Child Labor.
The work that Las Marías carries out in this area, actively committing itself to the care of its value chain, is deployed through its own actions - control of contractors, audits and certifications - as well as being enriched through joint initiatives with relevant actors in the field: the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security, the National Commission for the Eradication of Child Labor (CONAETI, for its initials in Spanish), the Business Network Against Child Labor and the International Labor Organization (ILO).
In 2017, Las Marías was invited to join the CONAETI Steering Committee during the IV Global Conference on the Sustainable Elimination of Child Labor, held in Buenos Aires. The conference was organized by the government of Argentina with the support of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and was attended by delegates from member states of the United Nations, employers' and workers' organizations from 193 countries, as well as representatives of NGOs and the press.
It is also recognized by the National Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security as an active member of the Network of Companies against Child Labor.
Las Marías is an Active Member of the Business Network Against Child Labor.
Las Marías, through its Foundation, also organizes workshops in rural schools to raise awareness of the need to eradicate child and adolescent labor. Teachers, assistants, students, and parents and other members of the community are encouraged to participate in these activities.
Through its Foundation, Las Marías conducts workshops on Child and Adolescent Labor in rural schools in Corrientes and Misiones.
