Putting the community first

A nutrition programme developed in the ‘Mi Mundo Feliz’ kindergarten in Puerto Nuevo helped 58 children and their families. APMT is also supporting the House of Young, which helps inner city children in an after-school programme that keeps them off the streets.

“Working with local community leaders to create local community companies, APMT Callao is creating jobs such as security outside the port, food/catering services for our workers in the terminal, cleaning services and others,” says APMT spokesman Tom Boyd. The company is also supporting the creation of a sustainable bakery, whose earnings will support the poorest people in Puerto Nuevo and surround neighbourhoods, and is about to launch a programme to help train local women interested in knitting and exporting their work.

One of the headline projects for Hutchison Ports across the world is its Dock School Programme, where its ports are encouraged to adopt local schools in need of financial and educational assistance. This has included funding construction projects, scholarships, school supplies and books, computers and educational activities. HPH also supports a range of other educational initiatives.

DP World has said that long-term community projects in areas that are prime recruiting grounds for pirates are vital to any comprehensive and long-term solution to the problem of piracy. The port operator says it has seen first-hand the difference long-term investment and involvement with the community can bring to an economy – this has been a major part of its business development strategy in Africa and elsewhere for many years.

In 2010, DPW announced funding support for two Aden-based community initiatives – the Ras Morbat Clinic and Training Centre and the Ras Morbat Institute. At the clinic, this included underwriting training programmes for staff doctors in paediatrics and ophthalmology at the University of Aden, with supplementary training at Oasis Hospital in UAE.

The funding is part of DPW’s Responsible Business Programme, which focuses on job creation, vocational training, transportation safety and ‘moving lives’, which addresses basic human needs.