President Clinton visited Cartagena for the inauguration of the new Clinton Foundation house and invited Sofitel Legend Santa Clara’s General Manager as its guest speaker. The Sofitel Legend Santa Clara has partnered with the Clinton Foundation and has been purchasing products from their local vendors to help the local community and also meet the Planet 21 standards of the Accor Group.

The Clinton Foundation works to improve global health, strengthen economy and promote health and well being through environmental projects, associations between different organizations (government and non-government) as well as private citizens.

Sofitel Legend Santa Clara has partnered with the foundation to assist in two of the major points that are still continuing its evolution: growth and development of small businesses and training, educating and linking the local population into the workforce.

Through the vendors that the Clinton Foundation is helping educate and support throughout their association, the hotel has been able to increase the diversity of local products, such as fish, seafood, honey, herbs, cheeses and produce. In addition, with the financial, logistical and educational and training assistance that the Clinton Foundation provides for these vendors, each business owner has been able to modify and adapt the infrastructure of the small businesses to make part of a competitive market. The program has been successful and has allowed more small business owners to get involved with non-food products such as biodegradable trash bags, clothing, and fabrics, among others. This education and assistance also fulfills another Planet 21 commitment.

The alliance with the Clinton Foundation and Sofitel Legend Santa Clara has allowed the hotel to participate in activities that are socially responsible, integrate the local community as proactive actors, not just within the individual sector, but also partnered with COTELCO (the Colombian Hotel Association).

During his May 2013 visit to Cartagena, President Clinton attended the inauguration ceremony for the house that has become the host to the foundation within Cartagena. The General Manager of Sofitel Legend Santa Clara, Mr. Richard Launay, was one of the guest speakers, who was able to share the success of the partnership between the hotel and the foundation, as well as some of the statistics and success stories of the hotel with the foundation.

Sofitel Legend Santa Cartagena, www.sofitel.com