Chevron supports projects that promote education, health and economic development in areas where we operate in Colombia.
Addressing Basic Human Needs
Chevron works to improve health and living standards in Colombia, especially among the Wayúu people of La Guajira.
For more than 35 years, Chevron has worked with groups in La Guajira to produce energy, strengthen communities and respect local culture. Our partnership blends our ethics of safety, environmental responsibility and shared success with important values of the Wayúu people: kindness, friendliness and respect.
Working with the Wayúu, we have identified a variety of community needs, including infrastructure improvements, water supply, educational and health programs, sustainable agriculture and fishing, and an emerging tourism industry.
To address water and sanitation problems in the region, Chevron has drilled water wells and done other maintenance work, benefiting thousands of people. Chevron is also teaching Wayúu families how to better classify, collect, transport and dispose of solid wastes.
To improve nutrition, Chevron is implementing a pilot program that created 22 self-sustaining farms. By combining participation of professional farm specialists with the ancestral wisdom of the Wayúu, the project promotes conserving native species, pest control, planting trees for timber and developing foliage to provide shade. This project allows Wayúu families to feed themselves and produce enough surplus for market.
Chevron provides medical supplies and works to improve health care services and facilities. We have also launched local vision campaigns for school children.
Improving Education
Chevron's efforts to support education have focused on a range of projects.
Our teacher training programs have helped more than 1,500 students improve their national test scores. Since 2001, Chevron has offered 24 scholarships to high school graduates in La Guajira. Of those, four have earned university degrees. Some now work for Chevron.
Chevron helped build the Laachon Ethnical Educational Center, which serves 1,200 children from indigenous communities in rural areas of the Manaure municipality. The center ensures schooling for children from distant homes and brings young girls greater access to formal education. As a boarding school, the center provides both education and nutrition. Students recently celebrated the school's first high school graduation ceremony since it opened in 2006.
To promote cultural development in Colombia, Chevron helped sponsor a new wing of the Gas Museum in Riohacha. An interactive display educates visitors on the region's pre-Hispanic and Hispanic settlements. The exhibit explores the riches of the Wayúu culture, showcases the Riohacha Carnival and shares the music of La Guajira. Chevron also supports major exhibitions at Bogotá's Gold Museum and the Art Collections of the Central Colombian Bank.
Fostering Economic Growth
Chevron invests in a variety of economic development projects.
In the municipality of Manaure, Chevron supports a cooperative where families can buy basic supplies and groceries at affordable prices. Profits are reinvested and distributed within the community.
Chevron supports and protects the heritage of the Wayúu people. The Wayúu weave colorful handmade bags, hammocks and blankets. Chevron has partnered with a cooperative of Wayúu women to provide training and marketing support to more than 600 weavers. This support led Chevron to participate for the first time in the Círculo de la Moda de Bogotá, a major fashion event where Wayúu and Guajira designers presented their fashion and handicraft designs.
Chevron provided global positioning systems, new motors, technical training and financial assistance to more than 640 fishermen near the Manaure municipality. The program earned Chevron the Gold Medal for Environmental Responsibility in Research from the nongovernmental organization Fundación Siembra and the United Nations Development Program.
Being a Good Neighbor
Chevron has responded to emergency situations in recent years by contributing funds for emergency food aid, medicine, housing, sustainable energy sources and infrastructure improvements to schools.
Chevron, under the Texaco® brand, is the sole fuel distributor in the province of San Andres Island. There, we have built playgrounds and supported the Formula Smiles Foundation, an education program. We have also provided assistance to the local Toy Library, a learning and recreational center that supplies toys and games to more than 800 schoolchildren and their families.
Updated: April 2013
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