In today's world, it is not enough to obtain excellent sales and profit figures and have an international presence to be considered a first-class company. Customers and the society at large today demand more, asking that companies take responsibility for social issues and the environment.

Torraspapel, like other world-class companies, welcomes that responsibility. This is why we are investing and taking great efforts to responsibly manage the environment and assume our role in social issues. In keeping with this philosophy, for the second consecutive year, Torraspapel is collaborating with UNICEF on a project geared to educating children worldwide.

This year, the focus project is the “Girls' Education” campaign. The link between education and a better quality of life for children has been clearly established. But if girls are left behind, as has been shown they are, the goal of quality education for all cannot be achieved. UNICEF's strategic plan for 2002-2005 includes as its top priority educating girls. This plan directly contributes to ensuring children's rights to education are guaranteed, as stipulated in the Convention on Children's Rights.

Educating girls yields spectacular social benefits for the current generation and those to come. An educated girl tends to marry later and have fewer children. The children she does have will be more likely to survive; they will be better nourished and better educated. She will be more productive at home and better paid in the workplace. She will be better able to protect herself against HIV/AIDS and to assume a more active role in society throughout her life.

UNICEF's aim is to get more girls into school, ensure that they stay in school and that they are equipped with the basic tools they need to succeed in later life. Education is the key to breaking the vicious circle of poverty, and only through basic quality education can the break be guaranteed.

Visit http://www.unicef.org/