Today Unilever stopped its Rungkut factory in Surabaya for one day to allow the management and employees to conduct a social program. The program with the theme ”Making a Real Difference” is focused on the painting, repairing and maintaining of educational facilities, and the distribution of educational materials in 9 elementary schhols and one orphanage which cover a total of 3,200 students in the neigbouring communities and participated by about 900 employees of the Rungkut factory.
Widya Noerlan, General Works Manager, Unilever, said that ”Unilever Indonesia’s vision is to become the first choice of customers, consumers and the public. To make the vision a reality, specifically in relation to the ’community’ element, we have a corporate social responsibility program, particularly for the communities surrounding Unilever’s office/factory. This year, one of the programs constitutes a social program for 9 schools and one orphanage involving employees of the Rungkut factory, and at the same time, in commemoration of Indonesia’s 60th anniversary.”
A similar program was conducted by Unilever at Rungkut last year which involved 8 elementary schools located in the neighboring communities of the factory, making the number of schools visited to 18 (including one orphanage) in the past two years and involving 7,000 students who enjoyed the benefits of the social program.
This year, aside from repairing the physical conditions of 20 schools visited, Unilever also donated wall clocks, garbage bins, Unilever products, as well as book shelves and school books to several schools who are in great need of the facilities.
Games were also held such as marble and baloon games involving all the students and concluded with an education session on how to brush teeth properly aimed at creating a healthy and health conscious generation.
”It is the social responsibility of each company to assist in community and environmental development, particularly in the areas where the company is located. Seeing the delight of the children and smiles of the teachers when they see that the facilities are in a better condition, is a pleasant experience on the part of the Rungkut factoryn employees, which cannot be valued in monetary terms,” said Widya. ”We will continue to conduct such programs for as long as the benefits can be enjoyed by the communities. We hope that many companies will be able to conduct programs to help the surrounding environment and thus the aim to have Indonesian communities live in a clean, healthy, happy and conserved environment can be achieved sooner.”
