At present, the Foundation has projects in 30 countries where ArcelorMittal has business operations. We focus on communities around or close to our business units, with projects to meet their specific developmental needs.

Our projects focus on education, health and community development, which we believe are crucial for sustainable change. Through the emergency aid programme, the Foundation is also committed to providing immediate support to communities during emergencies.

The Foundation seeks projects that would benefit local communities, are close to our business units, and within our areas of activity, which are education, health and community development. The initiative should also have a significantly large number of direct beneficiaries and allow for direct and active monitoring by the Foundation and its representatives at the local business units.

In 2011, we supported 588 social local projects across the world. We support community projects that focus on education, health and community development. Along with local initiatives in 30 countries, we also partner with international non-profit organisations on specific projects that resonate with our goals. An integral part of our work is also to promote volunteerism among employees by creating opportunities for them to work on projects that benefit our communities. So far, 200 ArcelorMittal employees have participated in a solidarity holiday and 158 have received a mini-grant to support the NGOs in which they are involved.

We partner with governmental agencies, NGOs, community representatives and private institutions, such as schools, to understand local social, cultural and environmental issues.

The Foundation also works with international NGOs on global initiatives for education, health and community development. For example, we are working with Habitat for Humanity to build low-cost houses in regions that lack adequate housing and, so far, have built homes in Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Haiti, Macedonia, Mexico, Romania, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago.

For emergency relief, we work with local and international NGOs to provide immediate support.

The Foundation runs a global volunteer programme, which encourages employees to find personal ways to support local communities, depending on each individual’s skills and priorities.

On 5 December, which marks the United Nations International Volunteer Day, we celebrate the spirit of volunteering with our own International Volunteer Work Day across the company. On this day, employees dedicate their time to volunteering for the benefit of their local community.

The Foundation also has a mini-grant initiative that offers a limited number of grants to NGOs in which an employee is involved and which could make a real difference to community life. With our solidarity holiday initiative, employees can apply to volunteer overseas at one of our community projects, dedicating a part of their annual leave to work for a project supported by the Foundation. After two pilot projects, solidarity holidays were launched in 2011, and so far 200 ArcelorMittal employees from all over the world have participated in 22 projects.

The initiative is open to ArcelorMittal employees who have worked with us for at least two years and are on a permanent contract.

We also consider any previous experience of volunteering, employees’ ability to adapt to other cultures, their language skills, any specific skills they may have, but above all, we assess what has motivated them to apply.