One of CPL Group’s core values is: ‘we care — for our community, customers and people’. By giving back to the community we serve, we demonstrate our commitment to this value. In 2014, CPL Group founded the CPL Foundation as the vehicle for our many corporate social responsibility activities. The Foundation has four major areas of interest:
- the economic empowerment of women
- education
- income generation for women and youth
- health
In 2015, several partnerships with the Foundation were strengthened. Apart from responding to direct requests from various community groups and schools, the focus was on supporting our approved partners’ delivery of services in their respective projects.
OUR PARTNERSHIPS
The Ginigoada Foundation
The Ginigoada Foundation originated in 2002 to help disadvantaged young people and adolescents develop financial skills, to improve their chances of employment or run their own income generating activity.
In 2015, the Ginigoada Financial Literacy Skills Program extended its training program to Lae. The CPL Foundation provided strong support by becoming its major sponsor. The sponsorship of its Port Moresby program was also continued.
Twenty-two training sessions were held in various settlements and villages around Port Moresby in 2015; 2984 students enrolled and 1964—or just under 66 per cent of participants— graduated.
The Lae program began in March 2015 and, during the year, 13 sessions were completed. Lae boasted a higher completion rate than Port Moresby, with over 83 per cent of participants graduating. The program in Lae’s Buimo Prison had a 100 per cent completion rate—a first for the program.
Post-training services
Also in 2015, Ginigoada commenced offering Advanced Business Skills training for ‘Bus 4’ graduates. The sessions were held in their training rooms in Badili and participants paid a nominal fee of K50 to enrol.
A total of 229 graduates of the Business Program registered for Business and other short-term vocation courses. Upon completion of the course, 142 were placed at various organisations for practical vocational training.
Other graduates have been placed with Black Swan Security Services for security training. At least eight have completed the course and are now permanently employed by Black Swan.
A concerted effort to assemble more accurate statistics on how the training has affected all graduates from the start of the ‘Bus 4’ Program was initiated in 2015, and will continue in 2016.
Buk bilong Pikinini
Our financial sponsorship of the Buk bilong Pikinini (BbP) Library and Early Childhood Education Program on Tatana Island outside Port Moresby continued in 2015. Research was undertaken across the BbP libraries and the findings for Tatana have been positive.
For instance, children’s literacy between February and October 2015 improved by an above-average 39.2 per cent. While there is certainly room for further improvement, the statistics show that the library and program are definitely improving reading and writing skills. Tatana Library also achieved an even split of girls and boys among the (on average) 300 beneficiaries per week.
In addition to sponsoring the Tatana Library, CPL Foundation teamed up with BbP to distribute books to the Babaka Primary School in Rigo District in Central Province. CPL was able to supply books for the five-to-eight age group and BbP topped up the donation for books that are aimed at the eight-to-16 age group from their book surplus.
BbP are keen to continue to partner with the Foundation when book requests are received, especially for older-aged books. Their programs mostly cater for pre-school ages.
Towards the end of 2015, the CPL Foundation further assisted BbP with their fundraising drives by setting up space at the car park at Waigani Central for book sales. This drew in a multitude of shoppers. BbP was able to achieve all its fundraising targets by offering a wide range of second hand books at affordable prices to the public.
Women in Business
While we do not have a formal agreement with Women In Business PNG, the Foundation has assisted this organisation throughout the year by assisting their members with access-tomarket opportunities.
During the build up to Independence Day 2015, and again towards Christmas, we hosted a craft market for them, coordinated by the team at Stop N Shop Waigani Central. Vendors were able to set up their craft stalls at no cost, generating much-needed sales for members. This association is likely to continue in 2016.
In September 2015, Lynda Babao, the wife of the Prime Minister and a friend of the CPL Foundation, opened the first partnered craft market. The event was included in the official Spouse’s Program of the Pacific Islands Forum Meeting. Vendors were fortunate to have this support and the ensuing business.
