While providing reliable energy supplies and quality products and services for the Thai people, Chevron also supports community engagement programs focused on education, health and the environment.
Supporting Education
Education is the cornerstone of Chevron's community activities in Thailand. We have an enduring relationship with the Phra Dabos Foundation, a royal initiative by Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The foundation provides occupational studies, meals and housing to students who cannot afford higher education. Over a six-year period, Chevron contributed approximately $1.2 million to the foundation for scholarships, supporting a total of 360 students.
Chevron has donated $600,000 to the Distance Learning Foundation and launched a campaign to raise funds from the general public to support the foundation. The campaign raised $1.2 million for better satellite communications that will help improve the education of Thai children in more than 700 schools across the country.
We started the Chevron School Network in 2008. The program is based on a successful waste management project first implemented in 2004 in Songkhla province, where we have facilities. This program promotes environmental awareness among students, teachers and communities. We are planning to expand the program from the original 12 schools to 84 schools across the country by 2011.
Chevron is collaborating with PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited and Chulalongkorn University to establish a new international master's program in petroleum geosciences that is expected to attract students from across Asia. Together we are providing $10 million in funding during the first five years of the program. This support will fund specialist lecturers from international universities, scholarships and research. Graduates of this program will help meet the demand for qualified petroleum geoscientists in Thailand and the region.
In 2010, courses in petroleum engineering education, research and technology were added to the program. Chevron Thailand committed up to $2.75 million over four years. This program will grant scholarships to lecturers pursuing a doctorate degree in petroleum engineering overseas. Undergraduate students pursuing petroleum engineering degrees can also seek scholarships.
We also support science, math and marine ecology camps organized every year through Chulalongkorn and Walailak universities. Our funding also provides Exemplary Youth scholarships to needy students who are average performers but demonstrate outstanding behavior at school and in the community. Other community programs include support for Thai National Children's Day and regional conferences on petroleum industry safety, health and environmental issues.
Through the Tsunami Aftermath Project, Chevron identified two schools that needed help. We funded the construction of assembly halls for the Baan Pak Weep and Baan Bang Nieng schools, both in the Khao Lak area of Phang-Nga Province.
Better Health Through Greater Awareness
Chevron directed $5 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to fight HIV/AIDS in Thailand. We partnered with the Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control, the principal recipient of a Global Fund Round 1 HIV/AIDS grant.
We worked with a recipient of Global Fund resources—the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH)—to increase awareness and education among Chevron employees, Thai youth and Caltex customers in Bangkok. We also organized AIDS Education Youth Camps in 2009 to strengthen leadership skills and HIV/AIDS awareness among youth leaders. PATH partnered with Caltex retailers and attendants to distribute more than 40,000 brochures with HIV/AIDS information at Caltex stations in Bangkok. In 2010, the AIDS Education Youth Camps, PATH Parents Network and train-the-trainer programs have continued to focus on communities in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
Chevron supports Operation Smile, a program that helps children with cleft lips and cleft palates. In 2009, we joined our employees to raise money over a two-month period. The money funded a medical mission for 50 children and a speech camp for 50 children in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
Responding to Community Needs
In October 2010, Thailand was hit by severe flooding in the northeast and central regions. Lands in several provinces were underwater for many weeks. Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Ltd., responded quickly, donating $130,000 in relief supplies. Our employees contributed another $3,000 to help the Department of Mineral Fuels' recovery campaign. On the first day of the flood, our Caltex retailers joined us in donating 20,000 bottles of drinking water to the communities affected by floods in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Chevron's relief team in Songkhla delivered hundreds of survival bags to people stranded in their residences. A group of our employees in Nakhon Si Thammarat joined 200 other volunteers to help pack more than 6,000 flood relief bags.
Wherever we work, we want to be good neighbors. In December 2010, Chevron (Thailand) Limited moved its head office to Chevron Energy Center in Bangkok. Our building is surrounded by long-established communities. We organized activities to strengthen relations between our employees and members of the community as well as local government officials. We cleaned the street in front of our headquarters, painted the wall of a nearby sports field, and cleaned and sorted books in the public library. Our work was supported by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Royal Thai Police.
Our employees share the company's commitment to responsible citizenship. During 2010, more than 1,000 Chevron volunteers contributed their time to participate in 35 community activities in 10 provinces. We built classrooms, painted school buildings, improved playgrounds, planted mangrove trees and distributed school supplies to needy students.
Updated: January 2012
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