700 orphans benefited from Pokphand program
700 orphans benefited from Pokphand program
About 700 children from 47 villages have benefited from a
special fellowship program initiated in 1984 by PT Charoen
Pokphand Indonesia (CPI). They came from poor, orphaned families
but had excellent educational performance.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this program, CPI held a
special get-together early this month where Eddy S. Zaoputra,
Senior Vice President, announced the plan to increase the number
of beneficiaries to 1,000 within this year. Each child will
receive a grant to pay for their tuition fees, books and other
related materials, with no commitment whatsoever tied to it.
The fellowship is not limited to those attending the nine
years obligatory elementary school, but will be extended through
high school and even higher education, if the beneficiary can
consistently perform outstandingly with a first through fifth
ranking in his or her class.
According to Zaoputra, the children were selected through
kelurahan (subdistrict) offices, supported by local school
headmasters, in villages around Jakarta, Tangerang, Cikampek,
Subang, Semarang, Surabaya, Palembang and Medan.
The fellowship was launched in 1984 with about 140 children,
who were selected from villages around Tangerang, the site of the
first investment of CPI. Some of the first 140 children are still
receiving fellowships and are now attending college.
The program was awarded special honors by the then Minister of
Social Affairs Mrs. Haryati Sudibyo in 1992. And no less than the
Minister of Education and Culture, Prof. Wardiman Djojonegoro
attended the special ceremony this year, praising CPI's social
contribution to promoting education. The occasion was also
attended by Prasert Poongkumarn, the agro-business line President
of the Charoen Pokphand group based in Bangkok, Thailand.
CPI, a leading agro-industrial organization specializing in
livestock research, animal husbandry and the production of animal
feed in Indonesia, was founded in 1972 with 80 percent equity
held by the Jiaravanon family, the owner of the Bangkok group,
and the balance from local investor.
Since being listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in 1991, its
total revenue from the sales of its products have increased
consistently to reach a level of Rp 548.3 billion by the end of
1993, producing a net profit of Rp 28.7 billion. The company's
share price rose from Rp 5,500 on the first work day of January
1993 to Rp 9,650 by the end of the year, amounting to a 75
percent gain in one year.
Starting with a modern 20,000 tons-capacity animal feed mill
in Tangerang, the first big-scale feed mill for the country, the
group has by now expanded to several other mills in Medan,
Surabaya, and Balaraja, with a total capacity of about 1,000,000
metric tons annually. And based on a philosophy of vertical
integration, the company has also developed into an agro-industry
group supplying a whole range of products, from 26 different
kinds of animal feed, to day-old-chicks -- more than 67 million
chicks every year -- and a variety of related equipment.