Efforts were made to expand the scope of the Socio-Economic Program to share
the benefits of the Yadana natural gas development project with as many people
as possible. This commitment led to increase the number of eligible villages by
12 since 2001, in addition to the 13 existing beneficiary villages in the pipeline
region since the inception of the program in 1995.
Since 1999, the program has been supporting seven orphanages, primarily in the Yangon region, that accommodate over
1,000 children. The aid includes ensuring this particularly vulnerable
population has access to quality medical and health care, food, education, and
sports and recreational facilities. It involves providing staff (one physician
and nine teachers), food donations and financing for recreational and health
facilities, classrooms and dormitories. It also benefits from the commitment of
certain Total E&P Myanmar employees or their spouses, who contribute to the
operation of the orphanages on a voluntary basis.
In March 2002, a ceremony was held in Yangon to inaugurate the Yadana Foster
Home, a facility built on land donated by a monk to accommodate orphans in a
family atmosphere and support their education from early childhood through to
vocational training. This modern facility, underwritten by the Yadana program
and managed by Foster Family, can accommodate 100 orphans and abandoned
children.
The
Socio-Economic Program is also supporting Helen
Keller International, a
US foundation that conducts blindness prevention
programs around the world, in particular in Myanmar, by supplying
equipment, medicine, training and specialized staff. The foundation has
observed that six out of every 1,000 inhabitants in Myanmar are blind,
and that, in 63% of these cases, their condition is due to poorly treated
cataracts. Its initiatives are part of a local program known as the Trachoma
Control and Prevention of Blindness Program of Myanmar. The support provided
to this organization by MGTC (US$170,000 for 2006) has aided the ophthalmology departments of the Yangon Eye hospital
and Mandalay Eye/Nose/Throat hospital, plus seven smaller eye clinics
(Shwa Bo, Sagaing, Maiktila, Myaing, Taung Dwingyi, Minbu, Myingyan).
A broad variety of support is offered, including training and technical
assistance, supply of specialist equipment and propagation of an eye
surgery technique using implants.
Since 2005, Total joined a public health initiative in Myanmar
designed to support and treat people living with HIV/AIDS in the Mandalay
region.
On January 31, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung
Diseases (Union), a medical and scientific association, signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Moattama Gas Transportation
Company (MGTC),
whose shareholders are the partners in the Yadana oil and gas project.
The MOU is actively supported by national programs to prevent HIV/AIDS
and tuberculosis and by the World Health Organization (WHO), which
has made triple therapy for patients with both tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS
a priority of the 3 by 5 Initiative, which aims to treat 3 million
people living with HIV/AIDS by 2005.
Tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic infection associated
with HIV/AIDS, and it is estimated that 75% of HIV-positive people
in Myanmar are or will be affected. Long active in the Mandalay
region, the Union therefore sought a partner to be able to treat HIV/AIDS
in HIV-positive tuberculosis patients. MGTC has agreed to fund
the
cost
of antiretrovirals used by the Union to treat the people concerned,
in line with WHO recommendations.
The program benefited from a budget of US$ 250 000 for its first year, 2005. The same amount was allocated in 2006.
The five-year initiative marks the first time that an international
scientific organization and a private company have cooperated
in the country, with the support of the Health Ministry and the WHO.
To enhance
the program’s effectiveness, MGTC is supporting training
in France for Myanmar physicians specialized in treating HIV/AIDS.
Professor Robert Gallo, the internationally-renowned U.S. scientist
who helped to identify the link between HIV and AIDS in the
1980s, witnessed the signing of the MOU and chaired the Technical Forum
on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care in Yangon, in which the country’s
medical community was closely involved.
These initiatives are part of the operations conducted by Total to form
partnerships with humanitarian organizations in order to further enhance the
effectiveness of its Socio-Economic Program in Myanmar.
