ADVERTORIAL

POWERCHINA volunteers donate supplies to the ACENAMM Orphanage in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on December 31, 2020

“Building quality projects and making friends from all over the world” has been the goal and commitment of POWERCHINA in its overseas operations. As the world’s largest builder of power facilities, the company is actively involved in the construction of the Belt and Road projects and has expanded its construction business to African countries. Apart from improving waterways, supplying electricity, and building roads and bridges, the firm, as a Chinese central state-owned enterprise with a strong sense of mission and responsibility, has been fulfilling its social responsibility to local communities in the overseas markets.

Since the start of its operations in Africa, POWERCHINA has been contributing to the local realization of the UN development goals by driving employment through new hydropower infrastructure, developing skills of local people through trainings, providing assistance in education and care of orphans, building hospitals and donating medicines. Treating African people as brothers, the company has been providing help in a sincere and enthusiastic manner. Its efforts to spread love and hope in Africa have helped it establish sincere friendship with local governments and people.

Nurturing local talents

Hailed by the government of Equatorial Guinea as the “Three Gorges Project of Equatorial Guinea,” the Djibloho Hydropower Plant meets 90 percent of the country’s demand for electricity and is an important engine for its economic development.

On December 1, 2018, the construction of the plant was officially completed. However, to ensure stable power supply from the plant, POWERCHINA stayed on to operate and maintain the plant after it was handed over to the local government. Knowing that it is better to teach people how to fish than to give them fish, the company attached great importance to training local employees and helped them learn skills. After a few months of training and internship, the local operators were able to independently operate the plant.

Today, POWERCHINA still provides maintenance and technical support for the plant, and its help to local staff also continues. On the 2019 International Volunteer Day, the volunteer team of the firm’s Equatorial Guinea office trained 40 local employees of the plant. The training combined the teaching of theory and practical operation and, according to the local participants, was detailed, vivid and easy to understand. They said that they gained a lot of practical knowledge about hydropower plants from the training.

To facilitate communication between local operators and Chinese engineers, and help local employees better operate the equipment of the plant, the company provided a two-month Chinese training session free of charge in collaboration with the Confucius Institute at the National University of Equatorial Guinea. African employees of the plant signed up with great enthusiasm.

The training received attention and praise in Equatorial Guinea. Media such as Xinhua Africa and Equatorial Guinea’s national TV station reported on the event. Andrés Masa Angué, then Power Services Director for the mainland of the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy of Equatorial Guinea, said that the training helped local operators better master the knowledge of hydropower plant operation, which is of great significance to the economic development of the country.

POWERCHINA staff members take a group photo with teachers and students of a middle school during a volunteer activity in Abuja, Nigeria, on September 9, 2019

Care for children

In Cameroon, POWERCHINA’s office has a heart-warming tradition. Around Christmas and New Year’s Day each year, the office would cooperate with member companies of the group to hold voluntary activities in schools and orphanages in the areas along the roads it is building. They would repair classrooms and donate stationery for the children, and sing and dance with them to celebrate the New Year.

From December 2019 to January 2020, volunteers from the office came to the Balouh EEC School along Section 2 of No. 4 National Road being built by the company. The school’s classrooms were old with dilapidated roofs, and had safety risks. After communication with the school and on-site inspections, the volunteers entered the school with equipment. During the Christmas holiday, they replaced the roof of the classroom, reinforced the beams, and plastered and painted the brick walls of the school. They also made a number of simple bookshelves and erected a flag-raising stand. Upon return from the Christmas holiday, the children cheered when they saw their renovated campus.

At a ceremony held to open the renovated school, Li Yanfeng, Project Manager of the section, encouraged the children to study hard in the renovated classrooms. The volunteers presented schoolbags and stationery to the children.

Speaking as a representative of the students, Bianda Therese expressed her gratitude to POWERCHINA. “For many years we have been receiving education in classrooms with poor conditions and safety risks, but now thanks to POWERCHINA, we can finally be in a beautiful, safe and comfortable classroom,” she said.

The principal of the school, Njieyep Josterine, also expressed gratitude in her speech. She praised the company for its realization of social responsibility and wished that the friendship between China and Cameroon lasts forever.

On December 24, 2020, the Christmas Eve, employees of POWERCHINA’s Cameroon office and young volunteers from the member companies in the country visited the special school founded by Colonel Daniel de Rouffignac located in Yaoundé, where more than 100 visually impaired children, including orphans, live. They donated food, daily necessities and medical supplies as Christmas gifts to the teachers and students.

A week later, they visited the ACENAMM Orphanage in Yaoundé and donated supplies. At the donation ceremony, the children in the orphanage invited the volunteers to dance together. Amidst cheerful singing and dancing, the orphanage was filled with joy in celebration of the New Year.

According to Ngangoua Serge, POWERCHINA’s representative in Cameroon, the company cares about the disadvantaged groups in Cameroon. Since it began operating in the country in 2010, the company has held similar donation activities every year, in a bid to bring love and happiness to children in need.

POWERCHINA volunteers hand over keys to the Balouh EEC School in Cameroon after renovating it on January 15, 2020

Medical support

Noticing the need for more medical services in Africa, the company has also helped improve local medical conditions in places where its projects are located by building hospitals and donating medicines and facilities.

On November 30, 2020, in the presence of Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and First Lady Constancia Mangue De Obiang, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the New Niefang Hospital, a landmark Chinese Government aid project in the country to be built by POWERCHINA. With about 100 beds and construction area of about 5,700 square meters, the general hospital will have various departments including outpatient, emergency, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, internal and external general medicine, and infectious diseases. The project also includes necessary medical equipment and furniture. The construction is scheduled to finish in 20 months, and after completion, it will strengthen the medical system in central Equatorial Guinea and will provide quality medical services to residents in and around the city of Niefang.

In Cameroon, the company donated medicines and medical equipment to a public health center near the site of a dam to be built by it, as part of the volunteer activities conducted by its Cameroon office. Nono Silvie, Director of the health center, expressed her gratitude on behalf of the staff of the medical center, saying that the urgently needed medicines and medical equipment greatly strengthened the center’s confidence in fighting infectious diseases and saving lives.

On January 29, 2019, the company’s Equatorial Guinea office assisted the Chinese Embassy and the Chinese medical team in the country to carry out a free clinic at the company’s camp for Djibloho Hydropower Plant. The free clinic, covering internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology, and ophthalmology, treated more than 180 local villagers.

Speaking at the event, then Chinese Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea Chen Guoyou said that the free clinic held with the assistance of POWERCHINA is a testament to the friendship between the two countries and a manifestation of the active fulfillment of social responsibilities by Chinese companies in Equatorial Guinea.