ABN AMRO Donates One Billion Rupiah To Adopt An Indonesian Community
Donation marks bank’s 180th anniversary in Indonesia by sponsoring construction of 50 houses
JAKARTA, 13th March 2006: Indonesia’s oldest established foreign bank has marked its 180th year in the country by donating one billion rupiah (US108,600) to a Habitat for Humanity Indonesia project.
Hand-in-hand: (from left) HFH Indonesia chairman Jusuf Arbianto, ABN AMRO Asia CEO Jeroen Drost and ABN AMRO Indonesia country executive Henk Mulder at the cheque presentation ceremony
The bank’s contribution will go towards the construction of 50 houses under HFH Indonesia’s Adopt-A-Community project in Tembelang district in Bekasi, east of the capital Jakarta.
ABN AMRO Indonesia country executive Henk Mulder says: “Celebrating 180 years of our existence does not only demand celebration but also self reflection about our contribution to the Indonesian society and its developing economy.”
He adds: “We all know that housing is a basic need for everyone, though many can only dream about having proper housing.”
The bank’s awareness of the poverty situation in many areas in Jakarta has also spurred it to help low income families gain access to affordable and decent houses.
Under the Adopt-A-Community project, houses will be built for 50 families in the community which is made up of two villages, Sukamantri and Sukawangi, with a population of 11,100 people.
Families for this project will join the Save & Build program which enables each family to own a family more quickly through the combined savings of the group. Homeowners are also required to put in 200 hours of their own labor per family.
ABN AMRO Indonesia is the first foreign bank to join HFH Indonesia’s Adopt-a-Community program which includes corporations such as Motorola, ExxonMobil, JW Marriott and General Electric. This program gets corporations involved in developing communities and transforming societies, and also provides for corporate team building.
It is proposed that ABN AMRO Indonesia’s staff each volunteer for 20 hours in a year to build houses for the duration of the one-year project.
The selection of families for the Adopt-A-Community project will take place in April and building of the first house is expected to begin in May, says Emilia Sitompul, resource development
ABN AMRO Indonesia is part of ABN AMRO, the Netherlands-headquartered international bank banking group. ABN AMRO ranks 20th in the world based on banks’ tier 1 capital, with over 3,000 branches in more than 60 countries and total assets of EUR 880.8 billion (about US 1,054 billion).