VIVA mi escuela’: OMV hands over EUR 80,000 to ICEP for school project in Nicaragua
October 1, 2010 - 10:00 am (CET)
- OMV’s CSR project, ‘VIVA mi escuela’, provides active support for Nicaragua’s school children and teachers
- First annual balance sheet exceeds all expectations
- VIVA world of indulgence offers best-quality gourmet coffee
- ‘Coffee Day’: Free coffee offer for all VIVA customers
Over the past year, one cent has been donated to the ‘VIVA mi escuela’ social project in Nicaragua for every cup of VIVA coffee sold in Austria or Germany. On 1 October – exactly one year after the project started - Harald Joichl, Head of OMV’ s Filling Station Business in Austria and Germany, was able to hand over a cheque for EUR 80,000 to the Austrian aid organisation ICEP. This money will be used to provide children in the coffee-growing country of Nicaragua with a better education and a more promising future.
In the morning of 1 October, Harald Joichl, Head of OMV’s filling station business in Austria and Germany, presented a cheque to Astrid Taus from ICEP at the OMV filling station on Adalbert Stifter Straße in Vienna. Around 8 million cups of VIVA coffee were consumed in Austria and Germany over the past 12 months, generating a fund of EUR 80,000. “I would like to thank our customers and filling station partners for their huge support for this project,” said Joichl, who was delighted with the positive result. “It was important to us from the start to provide direct aid. The cooperation with ICEP is the right approach since ICEP employees know the local conditions very well. By taking this approach we know that the money will be used exactly where it is needed most.”
Practical help is twice as effective
Astrid Taus from ICEP is also delighted with the high amount of the fund, which will help her organisation to provide practical solutions: “Thanks to the advance financing of the project by OMV we were already able to provide a better education to 1,450 children last year, and support 42 teachers with training and new didactic lesson materials. The ongoing work by NGOs in the field of education is hugely important. There has been a new curriculum in Nicaragua since the beginning of the year. In order to implement the curriculum a teacher in Nicaragua, with an average of 40 children per class, not only requires better didactic know-how but also the financial resources for adequate teaching materials. Thanks to the long-term commitment of OMV we are now in a position to improve the educational situation for teachers and children on a sustainable basis.” Lastly, it must not be forgotten how important a sound education is for people in developing countries if they are to free themselves from poverty, adds Taus.
This CSR project is also set to continue: OMV will run the ‘ VIVA mi escuela’ project at least until 2012. The energy group is guaranteeing a minimum fund of EUR 50,000 a year in order to ensure that the level of support is maintained.
1 October: ‘Coffee Day’
1 October is an important date for coffee in Austria: on the initiative of the Austrian coffee and tea association, an entire day was dedicated to the aromatic brown beans for the ninth time. On this occasion VIVA invited all customers to enjoy its gourmet coffee for free in the best coffee house tradition. Anyone who visited one of the 170 OMV filling stations with VIVA received a free coffee of their choice from a selection of 10 delicious varieties. More than 14,000 cups of VIVA coffee are consumed in Austria every day. “Every cup of coffee drunk at VIVA provides support for the school project,” said Joichl.
VIVA gourmet coffee
VIVA has always placed considerable valuable on good-quality coffee. VIVA is the largest coffee house chain in Austria with around 170 VIVA worlds of indulgence. It uses 100% Arabica beans and high-quality WMF coffee machines in order to ensure the best taste and quality. In addition, all OMV filling station partners have to complete a comprehensive barista course. This intensive training about the origin, history, type and preparation of VIVA coffee guarantees the highest quality for all customers – no matter in which VIVA world of indulgence they want to enjoy their coffee.
For more information about OMV filling stations with VIVA in Austria: www.omv.at/viva
Background information
ICEP – global empowerment
The Austrian Development Organization ICEP was founded in 1996 as a private and independent initiative to make an effective contribution to the alleviation of global poverty.
ICEP is convinced that through education and training poor people in developing countries can become the driving forces behind their own development. This approach has been defined by ICEP as “empowerment”. The first step of empowerment is to provide new perspectives and stimulate a sense of initiative. Thus, ICEP invests in brain power and helps people in developing countries through education and training programs to discover and develop their own talents and skills and build up their expertise. ICEP conceives and implements projects in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia with the support of local partners.
In Austria, ICEP’s main task is sensitising and raising the awareness of Austrian companies about the needs and oportunities in developing countries, addressing the fight against global poverty as a benefit for the economy. ICEP supports Austrian companies in their efforts to translate global CSR from theory into practice and to manage CSR project developments from concept to reality.
More information is available at: www.icep.at
OMV Aktiengesellschaft:
With Group sales of EUR 17.92 bn and a workforce of 34,676 employees in 2009, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. As the leading energy group in the European growth belt, OMV is active in Refining & Marketing (R&M) in 12 countries. In Exploration & Production (E&P) OMV is active in 16 countries on four continents. In Gas & Power (G&P) OMV sells approximately 13 bcm gas per year. Through its 2,000-km gas pipeline network in Austria, G&P transports approximately 75 bcm gas annually. OMV’s Central European Gas Hub is one of the most important gas hubs in Continental Europe with an annual trading volume around 23 bcm.
OMV is the leading energy group in the European growth belt with oil and gas reserves of approximately 1.19 bn boe, daily production of around 317,000 boe in 2009 and an annual refining capacity of approximately 26 mn t. OMV now has 2,319 filling stations. The market share of the group in the R&M business segment in the Danube Region is now 20%.
OMV further strengthened its leading position in the European growth belt through the acquisition of 41.58% of Petrol Ofisi, Turkey’s leading company in the retail and commercial business.
Sustainability
OMV is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, and an active supporter to the values enshrined in its Code of Conduct. These include a strong sense of responsibility towards the social and natural environment, especially in economically weak regions. OMV continuously addresses economic, environmental and social issues related to its business in a responsible manner. The Company reports on its activities in a sustainability report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines. This report is published at the same time as the annual report.