Black pearls of highland Java & other gems
To implement CSR more meaningfully, we have focused on developing SMEs as partners, improving the quality of our environment, helping to transform waste into useful product and increasing health and environmental awareness.
In the rural regions of Java, which have a long and sad history of poverty, we have encouraged farmer groups to become suppliers to our Kecap Bango factory. Thay have been provided with the best available seeds, technical guidance and small, non-commercial loans. While agricultural experts from the Gajah Mada University of Yogyakarta leading the technical aspects of the projects, we made sure that the farmers developed business acumen. Another SME programme worth mentioning is the fish processing for our Royco brand of seasoning. In collaboration with the researchers of the Gajah Mada University, we discovered liquid seasoning withour additional MSG. This innovation required fish as an ingredient
Treasuring the source of life
We are committed to become part of environmental solutions. The aim is to raise, by way of voluntary contributions, the level of healthiness of our immediate neighbours. One example is the Clean River project that focused on the village of Jambangan, Surabaya. Here we tried to change the people's paradigm of living with the Brantas river. Within the programme, we supported the community to improve the condition of their environment by building sanitation facilities, positioning garbage bins strategically and taking care of solid waste disposal. Waste segregation between organic and non-organic materials was introduced. We contributed further by donating a composter unit and a composting facility was established.
Salvaging cities
We are attempting to broaden the impact of our activities by helping cities to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Of course, this means that we have taken on a bigger set of problem too. We have focused our efforts to alleviate some urban problems by concentrating on trash recycling. When we set out to gather information about solid waste problems, we were surprised to find that many recycling operations were lacking raw material. This was rather ironic, since solid disposal has been a problem in the cities for some time. To help alleviate the problem, we worked with the local government, universities, NGOs and the media, to raise public awareness about refuse-collection in Surabaya through "Surabaya Green and Clean" campaign.
Fun of health awarness
Continuous health awareness campaigns are usually deemed expensive. They do not have to be so, if various stakeholders collaborate to spread the word. Together with stakeholders we have campaigned through the Pepsodent Schools Programme since 1994. Children from 7,000 elementary schools have been educated on the importance of oral health using interactive education material. Pepsodent has also conducted free dental check-ups to promote the importance of regular visit to the dentist. Through the "IDE" programme, we create an interactive teaching-learning process for schools that has covered 233,000 students with more than 10,000 teachers in 800 schools in four cities for the third year.
Blessing of intimate connection
We engage with communities because we believe that every successful must listen carefully to its consumer's needs. Our over 70 years of existence gives us the confidence that we are able to do so. In this rapidly changing world we are also aware however that we must listen to consumers as fellow citizens too.
we therefore encourage our employees to get involved and contribute in a variety of community actions through a voluntary Community Connection Programme. It is heartwarming to know that the initiative came from the employees themselves. They have also been involved in improving surrounding communities through the Care for Area Surrounding Programme. Our employees have joined forces to rebuild run-down school buildings. Hundreds of managers have worked to provide indoor and outdoor classes, organise excursions to interesting places, share knowledge with children and help other stakeholders in many other ways.
Humanitarian aid in the form of collected funds and goods by both our employees and the company have helped alleviate some of the pain and suffering in disastes areas such as Nabire (Papua), Aceh, North Sumatra and other areas.
