PARTNERSHIPS

Right from the outset, Vale Inco Nouvelle-Calédonie engaged in communications with communities in the vicinity of the project; the communities of the Grand Sud. This action is part of an overall policy of good neighbourliness and can be summed up in two words: Corporate citizen.

Thus Vale Inco Nouvelle-Calédonie involves itself in the life of its neighbours, in consultations with the relevant authorities, through the medium of partnerships with local organisations whose mission complements its own mission or whose preoccupations are akin to its own, especially the education and training of young people, but also the protection of the environment.

Building Projects for the People

To support its policy of consultation, and in collaboration with the Djubea Kapone Traditional Council, Vale Inco Nouvelle-Calédonie has set up a programme called: “Building Projects for the People”. It involves lending support to the construction or renovation of buildings of collective interest in the chieftains of the Djubea Kapone Area, especially in the form of educational building projects.

This programme has a twofold objective: To assist in the development of the chieftains and at the same time provides training for the young people of the tribe benefiting from the programme.

The budget allocated by Inco is CFP150 million (US$1.5 million) over three years, that is three annual allowances of CFP50 million (US$500,000). A joint venture commenced in July 2006 with the Djubea Kapone Area Council and a local training centre with a view to undertaking initial work in the coming months.

Projects submitted by the communities include:

• Touaourou, Yaté
  • Reconstruction of a kitchenette destroyed during cyclone Erika in 2002 and used by the tribal leaders for meetings:CFP550,000  (US$5,500)
  • Reconstruction of a mini-market also destroyed by Erika that is used for markets, bingo and tribal dinners. CFP3 million (US$30,000)
    
    
• Ile des Pins
  • Completion of a chapel for the Touete tribe who had undertaken the construction itself  according to its members’ means and availability: CFP10 million (US$100,000)
  • Completion of a secondary building for the High Chief’s council, work on which was undertaken as part of a large scale renovation programme of its infrastructures: CFP8.5 million (US$85,000)
    

• Païta
  • Construction of a new tank for drinking water for the Saint-Laurent tribe. The current tank, built in 1975, is in a very bad state of disrepair. CFP3.5 million (US$35,000)
    

• Mont-Dore
  • Construction of sanitation including three public toilets, one of which is equipped for the physically challenged. CFP5 million (US$50,000)

“To date, about thirty young people have benefit from this program and more than half of them have obtained a job.”

Association for a secondary school seminary at the Lycée Jules Garnier

Since 2001, Vale Inco Nouvelle-Calédonie has been lending its support to the "Jules Garnier Association for a Secondary School Seminary" by providing financial assistance for the education of some sixty young Melanesian secondary school pupils. The Association’s activities that aim to promote the success of secondary school pupils who come from the three Provinces fits perfectly into our desire to contribute to the development of the young people of New Caledonia.

Having received schooling in various secondary establishments in Noumea (Lycée La Pérouse, Lycée Jules Garnier, Lycée Blaise Pascal and Lycée Do Kamo), the pupils in the main follow a curriculum that leads to a Baccalaureat S qualification.  The classes’ excellent success rate is proof that the Association is offering working conditions and suitable teaching facilities to ensure the success of the young Kanak people.