$25,000 donated to orphans

JAKARTA (JP): PT Lucent Technologies Indonesia, a communications systems and technology supplier, on Saturday contributed US$25,000 to five local social organizations dedicated to providing education to children from orphanages and impoverished families.

In a statement made available to The Jakarta Post, the company, the factory of which is located in Cibitung, West Java, said that the organizations receiving grants were Dian Mitra Foundation, One More Chance Foundation, Bintang Pancasila Foundation, Nusantara Foundation and Hanifiyyah Orphanage.

In addition to the grants, the company also donated a $1,000 registration fee for a student of the Bandung Institute of Technology who will represent Indonesia at the International Young Scientist Forum in England in July.

"Caring for the communities in which we live and work is a key element of Lucent's culture throughout the world," the firm's president Michael H. Stoll said.

The grants, he said, would help 500 children currently under the care of the five organizations, which provide them with education and food.

The company supported the Hanafiyyah Orphanage last year during a volunteer program it organized by spending time with 150 orphans, providing them with food, stationery, books, clothes and repairing the orphanage's premises.

Lucent's plant in Cibitung installed some two million telephone lines for state-owned telecommunications operator PT Telkom and state satellite operator PT Indosat from 1991 to 1997. (ylt)