2011 Annual Report - SBM Offshore

3.9.4 For a better future in Angola
SBM Offshore has operated in Angola for more than 44 years and throughout this time has tried to ensure that
Angola and the Angolan people benefit directly from its presence in the country.
The Company has always endeavored to recruit and train local people to work in its offshore and onshore
operations. It has also contributed to a number of social investment projects - intended to improve well being for
Angolans and help them gain the skills and experience they need to secure long-term employment, with SBM
Offshore, with other employers or as business owners themselves.
SBM Offshore’s ongoing commitment to Angola, is demonstrated by its support for two unique institutions, both of
which provide much-needed help for orphaned or disadvantaged children.
Centro de Acolhimento de Criancas Arnaldo Janssen
SBM Offshore has provided financial and practical support for the Centro de Acolhimento de Criancas Arnaldo
Janssen, a school and training centre for boys in Luanda since 1997. The centre helps orphaned boys escape a
life of poverty on the streets by gaining the basic education and hands-on training they need to find and hold onto
jobs. The centre has been extremely successful - indeed, the Angolan government is now keen to extend its
reach beyond Luanda.
Lar Nossa Senhora Das Dores
Lar Nossa Senhora Das Dores- a girls orphanage in Lubango, Southern Angola, was established in 1998 by
Sister Bernadete N’Gueve, following a moving encounter with a young beggar girl on the streets of Sister
Bernadete’s home town. SBM Offshore has supported the orphanage since 2003
At that point in time, around 70 girls, aged between four to twenty years, were housed in an old colonial college,
which they shared with a boy’s orphanage. SBM Offshore provided clothes, bed linen, school supplies and other
much needed equipment, to help Sister Bernadete and the girls in her care to make the best of the cramped,
dilapidated conditions in which they lived.
In 2006, the orphanage was forced to relocate. Fortunately, Sister Bernadete had acquired a land concession of
around 29 acres, thanks to support from the Archdiocese of Lubango - but she urgently required financial support
and technical advice to transform the land into a long-term base for the orphanage.
Initially Bernadete, two other sisters and around 70 girls were housed in temporary structures onsite, an
improvement on their first home, but still far from ideal. However, with support from SBM Offshore and regular
visits from Company employees, steady progress was made in designing and planning a new ‘orphan village’
complex.
In 2011, SBM Offshore took its support for Lar Nossa Senhora Das Dores to a new level. Following a detailed
evaluation of the orphanage’s needs, the Company committed to invest US$1.8 million in a one-year construction
project to provide a permanent home for up to 120 orphans and 4 sisters.
Following a competitive tender involving four local construction companies, SBM Offshore Angola awarded the
contract to build the new orphan village to SOCONSTROI Construcoes da Huila- and in January 2011, 30 local
builders working under the supervision of an Angolan site supervisor began construction work onsite. Throughout
This is a customized selection from the SBM Offshore N.V. Annual Report 2011
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