East African Portland Cement Company recognises the fact that good corporate citizenship is not only about putting in place sound business strategies, making impressive profits, paying good salaries and making huge tax returns. It is also about creating partnerships with the community and ensuring both parties benefit from the co-operation.

We therefore have put in place a comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility programme, through which we share our gains with communities that make our operations possible by being good neighbours and customers.

By devoting more than Sh35 million annually to CSR, we powerfully demonstrate our commitment to building a strong partnership with local communities.

Our social agenda is evident in our involvement in projects, such as education, sports, water, famine relief and environmental conservation.
Besides focusing on communities, we also have an internal CSR programme to improve health care among staff.  HIV/Aids is high on the list of concerns affecting our employees. Internal CSR activities focus on the sustainable ways of helping our employees lead healthy and responsible lives. We provide medical assistance, facilitate peer counseling, as well as awareness creation on the risk of contracting HIV.
On the other hand, we employ a collaborative approach to facilitate partnership with communities. We conduct surveys to understand their development priorities and then devise solutions.

We have helped hundreds of young girls secure education by committing funds to ensure they remain in school. We have built schools and boarding facilities for children in Kajiado District. One of the schools that benefited topped the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination in the district in 2005.
In Sultan Hamud, we have built dormitories and supplied sanitary towels to schoolgirls. This has helped keep them in school and saved them from early marriage or truancy. Girls at the Kibini Primary School were the main beneficiaries. At the Elerai Girls High School, we built laboratories and dormitories to accommodate 240 girls.

During drought seasons, we have come to the aid of the hungry in Kajiado, Machakos and Kitui. We engage our staff in relief food distribution and always ensure that the rations reach the most vulnerable or deserving cases – usually women and children.

In the drier regions of Kenya, we have built eight boreholes at a cost of more than Sh1 million each. In these areas, referred to as arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), water scarcity is a perennial problem that forces women and children to trek long distances in search of the precious commodity. The boreholes have greatly alleviated this problem, which disrupts education for girls.

At the same time, we have a strong policy on environmental conservation. We have participated in tree planting campaigns in the Mau Forest, one of the country’s vital catchment areas that are threatened with deforestation.

See images for other social activities