“I’m glad to be part of a company that gives back,” says Edgar Chua, Shell group country chairman.
Chua is a witness to Shell’s dedication to providing sustainable corporate social responsibility (CSR), having joined the Shell companies in the Philippines in 1979.
“Our CSR initiatives and activities are embedded in our main core business,” says Chua.
Foremost of the Shell’s CSR programs, Chua points out, is living up to Dr. Jose Rizal’s belief that the youth is “the hope of the nation”.
“Youth empowerment is one of main focuses of our CSR programs. Our core belief is we need to instill in our Filipino youth, discipline, diligence, responsibility and sense of fair play, to prepare them for major challenges in life,” said Chua, who is also the chairman and president of Pilipinas Shell Foundation Inc. (PSFI).
Late last year, Shell in partnership with its dealers, piloted the so-called “Gas Mo Bukas Ko (GMBK)” program which allows forecourt/gasoline attendants of Shell to undertake night classes in La Salle Greenhills. The program will also involve workshops to improve the scholars’ leadership and develop their positive outlooks.
This year, Shell is targeting to send through GMBK at least 100 more Shell gas station/forecourt attendants.
Initially, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., through PSFI, and Shell dealers will pool a seed money of some P25 million for the project.
“Our long-term goal is to involve 1,000 Shell gas stations and produce one scholar per station,” adds Chua, who is also the committee chairman of Management Association of the Philippines.
For the past months, proponents of the GMBK program have been screening candidates for scholarship in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Mindoro, Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Tacloban, Dumaguete, Bohol, Bicol, and Metro Manila.
Another youth-oriented CSR activity of Shell is the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship (SNYACC).
Fifteen years ago, SNYACC started enjoining Filipino students under 20 years old from all walks of life and from various schools all over the country to muster excellence and competitiveness through this global mental sport.
To date, tens of thousand of youngsters have been motivated and credit chess playing as an activity that has positively contributed to enriching their lives.
Proof of SNYACC’s success is the growing number of winners of the program that have gained individual prominence in the field of chess playing. Among these are Nelson Mariano II, Mark Paragua, Ronald Dableo, Oliver Dimakiling, Idelfonso Datu, Wesley So, Ian Cris Udani, Sander Severino, Julius de Ramos, Cedric Magno, Edgar Reggie Olay, Victor Lluch, Oiliver Barbosa, Jake dela Cruz, Rustum Tolentino, Onofre Espiritu, Arlan Cabe, Rodolfo Panopio Jr, Elmer Sumngat, Rodolfo Diaz Jr., Virgilio Vuelban, Exfelicos Bolico, Romeo Alcodia, Herbert Ciocon, Roland Peres and Roland Castro.
For over two decades now, Shell, on top of the GMBK and SNYACC, has been helping young Filipinos achieve their goals and objectives in life through a number of CSR programs that involve values formation.
Through PSFI, Shell group launched Sanayan sa Kakayahang Industriyal (SKIL) in 1983. SKIL is a training program that prepares young men and women to take an industrial jobs such as welding, machine repaid and electrical work.
Two years after the successful launch of SKIL, PSFI created another similar endeavor, Sanayan sa Kakayahang Agrikultura (SAKA). This program offers agricultural skills training to children of farming families.
Since there is no limit as to what the Shell group can do to promote sustainable growth through CSR, it also engages in other programs that involve community assistance.
“Our role is basically to provide assistance where it is required. Best thing about this is that Shell Foundation has values component to it. And the programs we carry out should be appropriate to the areas,” Chua points out.
On a community level, some of Shell’s CSR programs are being carried out in the areas where its facilities are located.
In Pandacan, for instance, where Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSP) maintains an oil warehouse, the company offered welding courses to out-of-school-youths under the SKIL program.
Also in Pandacan, PSFI hosted a Philhealth orientation in a nearby barangay to encourage Pandacan residents, most especially those who are self-employed, to sign up as Philhealth members.
“We have dedicated activities to the communities near our depots,” Chua says.
In Palawan, where Shell Group’s Malampaya deep water gas to power project is located, an Impok pangKalusugan (IpK) program was also undertaken.
Kilusan Ligtas Malaria (KLM) was also jointly implemented by the Provincial government of Palawan and the Malampaya joint venture partners (which include Shell Philippines Exploration B.V., the upstream development arm of the Royal Dutch Shell Group) and PSFI.
This malaria control project was instrumental in reducing malaria incidence and related deaths to date by 67 percent and 75 percent, respectively, as against year 2000 figures.
Shell also employed a number of quick relief operations as part of its assistance to calamity stricken areas.
Livelihood programs to the provinces damaged by natural calamities were also conducted.
Bicol Tabangan Program, for one, was launched in February of this year to engage more than 300 marginal coconut farmers, housewives and out-of-school-youths to various skills development activities.
In February last year, Shell partnered with Gawad Kalinga to provide livelihoods to residents of GK Villages in Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur.
Under the project, Shell and GK established a Communal Farm, a one-half hectare farm in Calabanga, Camarines Sur. Three other farms are expected to be put up in GK Villages in Milaor, Camarines Sur and Jose Panganiban and Basud in Camarines Norte.
Shell is also part of the aggressive campaign against malaria. “Shell Foundation was given the task of overseeing the Movement against Malaria (MAM),” he says, noting that the areas they would be focusing on would be Sulu, Tawi-tawi and Apayao.
On a larger scope, Chua also sits a champion for the health cluster of United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs aims to narrow down extreme poverty, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide universal primary education until 2015. It presents a blueprint agreed upon by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.
“We have started two years ago. We are targeting to spread education not only on health but also education, and environment to make a better world,” expounds Chua.
Some multilateral and local companies, Chua says, have bonded together to achieve the universal goal of the United Nations of mobilizing the objectives of MDGs.