Citibank to help kids return to school

JAKARTA (JP): Citibank Indonesia marked on Thursday the start of its three-year education project to help dropouts return to school, an executive with the bank said.

Ditta Amahorseya, head of corporate affairs at the bank, said the project, named Citibank Cares, is divided into three programs with a total budget of Rp 1 billion.

"The program will offer not only funds, but also the active involvement of over 500 Citibank employees as project volunteers," she said.

The time employees volunteer to the program will count as working hours, Ditta added.

The first of the project's programs involves funding the efforts of several organizations to prevent children from dropping out of school, she said.

Also part of the project is a Big Brother and Big Sister program, in which Citibank volunteers meet with dropouts to encourage them to return to school.

Ditta explained that under this program, the bank would provide each child with Rp 350,000 for tuition fees, books and uniforms.

The third program is a joint effort with Pustaka Kelana, a foundation which manages a mobile library for children and teenagers.

Citibank will also allocate space on the seventh floor of its Landmark Building for the project.

One of the first foundations to receive donations from Citibank was Bintang Pancasila.

Piyush Gupt, Citibank's country manager, said, "We're providing funds and volunteers to help needy children. We believe that the active involvement of Citibank volunteers will encourage the children, as well as the foundations and nongovernmental organizations involved in providing more education for our children." (bsr)