The trials that befell our country on the eve of its thirty-first year of independence force us to take a new approach to the concepts of social responsibility and socially oriented business. Understanding its responsibility as a city-forming enterprise, the Pobuzhsky Ferronickel Plant is increasing the amount of aid to both the local community and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Time for real cases
Since 2003, when the Pobuzhsky ferronickel plant became part of the Solway International Investment Group, the company has been working purposefully and systematically to build a socially oriented business. The next stage of this work was the organization in 2013 of the Charity Foundation “Development of Pobuzhye”, whose work made it possible to expand the scale of assistance to the community, as well as to form the necessary infrastructure for rapid response to community requests.
According to the information provided by the fund, last year the volume of assistance provided to the Charity Foundation reached 5 million UAH. Well-established communication with local residents allows to provide targeted and timely assistance to those in need. “We find the time and opportunity to help those in need,” said Denis Shevchenko, general director of PFP. In addition, thanks to the efforts of the PFP and the Foundation, the local hospital is supplied with what is necessary, and the social infrastructure works without interruptions. In addition, regional units of the Ministry of emergency situations and the police are under the care of the plant where 38 employees from the temporarily occupied regions were employed.
“Realizing our responsibility to society, we have prepared PFP organized equipped bomb shelters on the area of the community,” Denis Shevchenko continues his story. – “In addition, with our help, the production of semi-finished products for the armed forces of Ukraine and equipment has been established». However, the foundation and the PFP pay special attention to medical support for the population and the army.
“Often on the battlefield, quite little time is allocated to save our wounded soldiers, so the presence of first-aid kits equipped to modern requirements in the troops allows us to save the lives of our defenders.” – explains the general director of PFP. According to him, the plant, with the help of representatives of the parent company Solway, completes first-aid kits for the military according to the standards of NATO and the Ministry of health of Ukraine. The process of purchasing and delivering the necessary equipment and sanitary kits from abroad has been established. “To date, more than two hundred first – aid kits have already been handed over to the troops, fifty more are waiting to be delivered. About a hundred kits as well as 8 backpacks for paramedics are still to be equipped and sent off,” said Denis Shevchenko.
According to representatives of the fundation, financial assistance to PFP by Solway Investment Group in completing medical equipment for the armed forces of Ukraine is very important, since only the cost of one backpack is about 5 thousand UAH, and some components need to be purchased abroad. About 3 million UAH have already been allocated for this purpose: “in addition to the backpacks, we add anti-chemical attack products (diazepam, atropine), water purification pills, filed gravity water purification systems, and so on.
Save what you possess
According to the general director of PFP, business tasks should not be limited to helping to repel aggression against the country. Equally important is the preservation of resources and the potential to resume production in the future – and most importantly, people. Therefore, despite the difficulties with logistics, because of which the company is teetering on the verge of stopping, PFP continues fulfilling its obligations to employees, their families and members of the community.
According to Denis Shevchenko, since the outbreak of war, to maintain the spirit and psychological health of young people, the plant and its investor continue implementing a number of humanitarian projects aimed at developing social skills and integrating Ukrainian youth into the world community.
One of them is online learning platform Pitch developed by PFP specialists to introduce high schoolers considering their career options to professional opportunities in mining. In addition to continuous edutaining workshops in chemistry, mathematics, biology, physics and other industry-related subjects, users are provided with essential information on how to behave in wartime, online consultations with psychologists and entertaining scientific content to distract youngsters from the harsh reality.
With the assistance of the Solway Group, Ukrainian young artists and their contemporaries from different parts of the world united in the anti-war online exhibition to support Ukraine; Ukrainian graduates of the International fellowship program for gifted youth Alina Lyubchenko (15 years old) and Polina Razumnyak (14 years old) got the opportunity to showcase their talents and tell about the experiences of their peers in the war zone to the world-known representatives of the cultural community in Salzburg; starting from February 2022 all Ukrainian teenagers, regardless of their creative skills and competencies gained free online access to English language and art history classes run globally as a part of the international scholarship program Creative Fellowship.
“The challenges that we face force the local community, employees, and the company’s management to work together. In this difficult time, only our unity will ensure success in the struggle. Therefore, the management of PFP and its investors, are doing everything possible to support those in need in difficult times, build the feeling of community and lay foundation for the future restoration our country as a whole. And this is only possible with joint efforts,” says Denis Shevchenko, general director of PFP.