And Social Responsibility?
Driving Collaborators’ Education
In Xel-Ha park there is a clear commitment with academic development of its collaborators regardless level they are. Zero Educational Lag was established since 2003 with the National Adult Education Institute in order to motivate personnel to continue their studies and conclude primary, secondary or distance high school education.
Besides allowing collaborators to assist to their consultancies inside park’s facilities, Xel-Ha has an incentive program for studies concluded in order to motivate them to continue with their education.
Incentives are money which is given according education level they conclude: primary, two thousand pesos, secondary, three thousand pesos, high school, four thousand pesos and degree, five thousand pesos.
In 2008 three collaborators completed primary education and fifteen concluded secondary education successfully.
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THE COLLABORATORS BUILDING AND COMMISSARIAT
In 2008 the new services building for collaborators was built, serving the purpose of providing them with improved areas for their activities, surrounded by a pleasant atmosphere.
The facilities house the collaborators diner, with a capacity for 180 guests. Given that since it was designed, “Distinctive H” requirements were taken into account, the kitchen fulfils strict safety and hygiene controls in food preparation, reason why it already achieved the previously mentioned certification. This building has also bathrooms, showers, and lockers for collaborators.
In the commissariat area, food production for all the restaurants of the park takes place, and it perfectly complies with all the requirements for Distinctive H certificate. During the evaluation process, the commissariat obtained a perfect score, which shows the quality of the facility and its operation.
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TRAINING FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Xel-Ha has a firm commitment towards its collaborators’ constant growing and improvement. Through internal and external trainers, courses designed to respond to each area’s particular needs, as well as general culture, are taught on a monthly basis.
The goal is to prompt and strengthen our collaborators’ human development by means of knowledge, granting them whatever tools they need, in order to achieve it.
In 2008, for instance, about 53 thousand hours of training were imparted, which represents an average of 94 hours per collaborator, and an investment of one million 236 thousand pesos.
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Watching over Family’s Health
In Xel-Ha there is a commitment to support all actions that may contribute to keep all the park’s collaborators in good health, therefore, preventive medicine brigades are organized in coordination with the Mexican Institute of Social Health (IMSS) and Solidaridad town council.
Such campaigns allowed in 2008, to take care of 285 collaborators, apply 250 flu vaccines, and perform 60 detection tests for cervical uterine cancer, as well as prevention lectures.
On top of supporting sports activities for their importance in good health, Xel-Ha started the program “Nutrition and care for kilos” that prevents overweight and improves alimentary habits in collaborators. This way, advised by a specialized nutritionist, menus were redesigned so everyday there are low calorie and highly nutritional options besides the normally served meals, which are varied and of quality.
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TEN YEARS EDUCATING
Xel-Ha’s environmental education program turns 10 years of being instituted and just registered the fifteen hundredth academic group, with students of “Miguel Ortega Navarrete” school, from the nearby town of Puerto Aventuras in the Riviera Maya.
Throughout a decade, the Environmental Education Program has raised consciousness for the care of the ecosystems in over 52 thousand children, as well as 6 thousand 700 teachers, by means of free guided tours in which topics like “Water Culture”, “Macaws”, “Queen Conch”, “Sea Turtles” “Plants” and “Ecosystems”.
The educative visits to Xel-Ha are programmed and coordinated by the State’s Education Board, and comprise of their social responsibility actions with the objective of prompting environmental culture, and sustainable use of the natural resources as a fundamental tool for development.
In addition to these visits, Xel-Ha’s environmental educators visit the schools in Quintana Roo, and the neighbor states of Yucatan and Campeche, to share their knowledge in echotechnics such as paper recycling, and create awareness for a sensible use and conservation of endangered species, like the queen conch.
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PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF THE QUEEN CONCH
The Queen Conch (Strombus Gigas) has been declared by the International Union for Nature’s Conservation as a Commercially Threatened Species.
In Mexico, they are located along Yucatan and Quintana Roo coasts. Due to the decreasing population of the conch, by the eighties, queen conch’s fishing was banned in Yucatan.
In Quintana Roo, there is a closed season from May to October, for individuals with a minimum capture size of 20 cm, and a 30 tons capture fee for Banco Chinchorro, and 12 tons for Cozumel, as well aw a limited concessions issuing.
However, the queen conch is over exploited, and in some areas it has already vanished, for it has suffered an intense an illegal capture, and conch meat can be found in restaurants and markets throughout the year.
In order to resist this situation, an environmentally educative program is being held, to create consciousness on society about protection and rehabilitation of the species.
Xel-Ha promotes the conservation of the queen conch, by protecting adult, reproducing population, and young individuals with good survival and growing rates, hence, it is considered a sanctuary for the queen conch.
Xel-Ha is also a training center for elementary and middle school teachers, enrolled in the Mesoamerican Reef Program, which sensitizes and brings up to date all teacher on this quandary, and therefore have them contribute, from their classrooms, to a greater awareness among young population.
The program is released in coordination with the Research and Advanced Studies Center (Cinevstav-IPN) Merida.
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Environmental Management System
Xel-Ha’s Environmental Management System, established in 2006, ponders the following programs: Integral Water Management, Electric Energy, Natural Resources Conservation, Solid Waste Management, Hazardous Waste Management, Environmental Impact, Chemical-free sunscreens, Macaw Management, Gas Use and Contingencies (hurricanes).
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How we care for the water…
An average of 96 thousand litres of water are reused for green areas irrigation in Xel-Ha, after going through an efficient treatment with aerobic automated systems, as part of the Environmental Management System, under which this 84 hectares natural reservation is ruled.
Since 1995, Xel-Ha counted on a system of 3 septic tanks, but by the year 2000, the park moved the gathering and handling of sullage to the current 5 treatment plants, with systems that allow the quality of the treated waters to stay up to the level established by the active standardization in the matter.
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