Rueil Malmaison (France) June 22, 2004 - Schneider Electric has just donated electrical equipment to the United Nations Refugee Agency. The donation involves variable speed drives (Altivar 38) for controlling water pumps in one of the newly-installed refugee camps in Ethiopia. The gift is worth euros 55,000. Schneider Electric also pledged to support a program to help refugee children and young adults in Cameroon. Today, Cameroon has 17,000 Nigerian refugees in camps in the north of the country, near the border with Nigeria, and 41,625 urban refugees at Yaoundé and Douala.
This program has two objectives: * The rehabilitation of buildings to facilitate the education and, therefore, the integration of 5,477 refugee children in Cameroon, with the aim of achieving a minimum education rate of 50% * Professional training for 75 young adult urban refugees to provide better access to the employment market and facilitate their integration in Cameroon. For Gilles Vermot-Desroches, Schneider Electric’s Director of Sustainable Development: “This mobilization in favor of refugees demonstrates our ambition to be a responsible company. We want to help them in their daily existence, but, above all, to give them back some hope for the future. Only education and professional training can give them a chance to reconstruct their lives”.
Emmanuelle Rouffi, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, director of the Association in France declares: “With this fourth project, Schneider Electric shows its humanitarian culture once again. This commitment indicates its ambition to ensure its action in the long term”. Schneider Electric has already supported three projects with the UNHCR: * in 2001: a financial donation in Afghanistan to house populations displaced by the war * in 2002: an education program in the Congo * in 2003: an education program in Tanzania. On each occasion, Schneider Electric showed its commitment, not only by agreeing to substantial investments, but also by involving its employees.
About Schneider Electric
A world leader in electrical distribution and automation & control systems through its world-class brands Merlin Gerin, Square D and Telemecanique, Schneider Electric develops a global offer of products and services for the residential, buildings, energy and infrastructures markets.
Schneider Electric employs 82,000 people worldwide, operates in 130 countries and generated sales of euros 8.8 billion in 2003 through 13,000 sales outlets.Visit Schneider Electric at www.us.squared.com , www.us.telemecanique.com or www.us.schneider-electric.com .