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.