Places Importance on Corporate Social Responsibility
The Salala Rubber Corporation (CRC), a Belgian natural rubber Plantation Company located in Gibi District, Upper Margibi County, has started providing some basic social services not only to its employees but to residents in surrounding communities as well, Liberia News Agency (LINA) Margibi correspondent Richard Baysah has reported.
According to Baysah, the SRC recently rehabilitated a stretch of road that connects the plantation with Peter Town to Worhn road, which has remained dilapidated for several years.
The 5.2 kilometer (km) road, located between SRC’s concessions linking Peter Town to Worhn (Headquarters of Gibi District), had been lying in ruins, thus making vehicular movement impossible, a situation that has deprived farmers from transporting their produce to the market.
William Printers, the chief of Peter Town, expressed gratitude to the SRC’s management for rehabilitating the road.
“I am personally delighted to see this road being reconditioned by the SRC, and so on behalf of the locals, I remain grateful to the company,” Mr. Printers told LINA at the start of the project.
Printers recalled that more than 30 years, “this SRC-Peter Town road has not seen a motor grader, but for the company to intervene at this time, it remains a great wonder for us.”
He spoke of how locals used to find it difficult to refer their women in labor and those sick with complications to other bigger health facilities, “because condition of the road was terribly bad.”
Many of the residents, who attended the launch of the project, including Ma Nowai Sackie of Ross Village, adjacent to Peter Town, expressed gratitude to the SRC, adding, “in several years, we have not seen earth moving equipment, especially to come and grade our road.”
Farmer David Lamandine also spoke of being relieved from the stress of road brushing, which happens each year in order to transport produce to the market.
But with the road now being rehabilitated, locals there feel it will enhance the free flow of traffic as the area will be plied by commercial and other vehicles.
Under its Corporate Social Responsibility program, SRC’s management is expected to undertake other projects when funding is available.
In a related development, the officer–in–charge and proprietor of the Weala Community Clinic, has commended the SRC’s management for meaningfully contributing to the running of the clinic. The power supplied is part of SRC’s corporate social responsibility.
Mrs. Muniatu Browne said the supply of electricity to the clinic over the years was a “laudable and welcoming initiative on the part of the SRC.
“Since I opened the clinic to the public in 2001, the SRC’s management has been providing electrical power at the facility; therefore, I want to personally take this time to thank them for such a wonderful gesture,” Mrs. Browne said.
According to her, the SRC’s management has been giving her electrical power for the last 17 plus years. “I also see this as necessary because it is a difficult thing to run one’s own private generator; but with SRC’s intervention, the future healthcare of the locals is ensured,” Mrs. Browne added.
Daily observer
