THPC Staff Combine Teambuilding and Community Service
Pakxong District, May 10, 2015
Employees at THPC have discovered a way to help a countryside village while at the same time improving their own professional performance. Two trips in May and April brought the THPC staff to Champassak, where they combined team-building activities with practical assistance to a rural community.
In late April a first group of about 120 THPC employees travelled to Pakse to spend two days on activities designed to help them communicate and work together better. In May a second group of around 150 personnel repeated the program so that every staff member had the chance to participate.
The first day was spent building new classrooms for Ban Boun Secondary School. THPC has joined together with the provincial education authority and the villagers of Ban Boun to co-fund the construction of four new classrooms at the school, located in Pathoumphone District.
As well as fund
ing the construction, THPC staff spent two days at the school laying cement-block walls and concrete floors for the new classrooms. According to Jyxiong Juevaxaiki, THPC’s Corporate Support and
Services Manager, this exercise showed the people of Ban Boun that THPC staff were serious about serving the community, and also enabled the company to speed up essential work ahead of the wet season.
“We had well over 100 labourers and some experienced builders on the site for two days, so we were able to accelerate the construction,” explained Mr Jyxiong. “At the same time, our staff benefitted from having to work together in random groups and an unexpected setting. This gave us a valuable team-building activity while helping out the school and village”.
The team-building theme was continued on the second day of both trips as the THPC staff travelled to the Etu Waterfall Resort in Pakxong District for an all-day session of outdoor bonding exercises. Divided once more into random teams, staff were put through a succession of activities designed to make each group organize, elect leaders and find ways of co-operating to complete various tasks. These physical and mental challenges required trust and team coordination as participants were in turn blindfolded and tied to each other while given problems to solve.
The two days of activities left almost the whole of the THPC staff physically exhausted but emotionally rewarded. Asked if they wished to repeat the exercise next year, almost all 270 participants replied with a resounding “Yes!”
Radio News from Keosenkham
In April 2015 L
ao National Radio broadcast four programmes made in Ban Keosenkham, one of the resettlement villages built by THPC around the Nam Gnouang Reservoir.
These programmes were made by the Government Office Media Department as part of a training exercise to improve their reporting skills. Excerpts from the four programmes are available below.
The first file is a special report that explains the Government Office Media Department training exercise. The other three files are news features recorded in Keosenkham, with the general title viek dee khun den or “Good Work, Outstanding People”.
The Deputy Head of the Government Office, Ms Viengsavanh Douangsavanh, explains about the Media Department training. This is their second such training programme and the subject chosen is hydropower development. The team is therefore looking at Theun-Hinboun.
Programme 2: Pig-Raising a New Opportunity in Keosenkham
This feature story includes an interview with the village head of Ban Keosenkham, Mr Somsack Inkeomanivong, who compares life in the new resettlement village with how it was in the old villages. He describes how the new infrastructure, services and training have transformed the opportunities available to the community. One example is an improved pig-raising initative in the village, sponsored by THPC, which is helping several families secure a good income.
Programme 3: New Life in Keosenkham
The second feature from Keosenkham features Mr Khamkhiao Veanvongsoth, from the THPC Agricultural Demonstration Centre, who describes how villagers can choose various farming activities sponsored by the company including rice, cash crops such as mushrooms and animal husbandry.
Programme 4: Fishery at Keosenkham
The last programme in this series explores how the villagers use the fishery in the Nam Gnouang Reservoir as a major pillar in their livelihoods. One of the villagers, Mr Xiengkhan Chantavisouk, explains that the fishery has given him a much better lifestyle than was possible before the resettlement to Keosenkham. Mr Xiengkhan is putting four children through upper secondary school and has also bought a car, which would not have been possible before. He explains how he fishes, and also has some advice for the authorities and the company on how to manage the fishery.
The May 2015 issue of the Prime Minister's Office magazine, Nak Borikhan, also carried a feature on THPC's work in Keosenkham. Click above to download the story.
Books and Fun for Houaythom Children
In late December staff from the Theun-Hinboun Power Company Head Office travelled to Ban Houaythom in Sangthong District, Vientiane Province, to give educational materials to the children at this rural primary school.
More than 100 children at the school received textbooks donated by THPC, with sports equipment and games for pre-school children also handed over.
Head Office staff gave the children a short talk on THPC and its business before handing over the materials. The staff then shared drinks and snacks with the kids before enjoying some fun and games in the school yard.
THPC has long been committed to suppoorting educational development in Laos. The Company funds a successful private school at its main compound in Khounkham, making the school open and free to local children, and has also built new schools in resettlement and relocation schools around Bolikhamxay and Khammouane provinces. THPC has provided university scholarships to promising students from its project area, but is also looking to extend its support to children in other parts of Laos, including through funding to the Educational Development Fund for Laos.
The school at Houaythom village was selected as being in need of extra supplies after consultation with the education authorities, and the THPC team was happy to make the long drive to Sangthong and meet the delighted pupils and staff at the school.
THPC Helps Attract Blood Donors
The Theun-Hinboun Power Company has shown its support for public blood donation, handing over 300 T-shirts to the Lao Red Cross in Vientiane in late February. The T-shirts will be given to blood donors to thank them for their valuable contributions and to encourage others to give blood.
The Khammouane branch of the Red Cross requested the shirts after helping THPC organise a blood donation session at the company’s hydropower plant in November last year. Company staff, senior students from the THPC school and members of the public came to the plant in Khounkham district to give blood.
Dr Sing Menorath, the Vice-President of the Lao Red Cross, thanked THPC for its support and said he hoped the company would continue building links with the Red Cross, especially in its mission to increase blood donation in the country.
Panel of Experts Appointed for Theun-Hinboun
Vientiane, December 9, 2014
The Theun-Hinboun Power Company (THPC) has appointed a panel of experts to assess the performance of its social and environmental programs. Three experts with long experience of analysing the effects of hydropower projects will begin auditing the Company’s performance in February 2015. The panel, or POE, will continue surveying the situation in the villages and natural environment around the Theun-Hinboun plant until at least late 2018.
THPC’s license agreement with the Lao government, signed in 2007 at the beginning of the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project, details a range of obligations that the Company must meet in order to demonstrate its commitment to improving the lives of villagers affected by the plant and to protecting the environment.
The three members of the POE have been selected to combine a range of complementary attributes and so form a balanced panel that can accurately assess THPC’s progress in reaching its targets. The panel’s leader is Dr Helen Locher, who has 25 years of experience in environmental and social sustainability work and is a qualified auditor and assessor of hydropower projects.
Associate Professor Souphab Khouangvichit, of the National University of Laos’s Faculty of Environmental Sciences, has been analysing the social and environmental implications of development and industrial projects in Laos for over 20 years, including advising on livelihood adaptation among resettled communities.
Completing the team is Francois Obein, who has been working in environmental and social positions in Southeast Asia since 1993. Mr Obein has been involved with major hydropower projects in Laos and led environmental and social panels of experts for hydropower projects in Africa.
The Theun-Hinboun POE is responsible for auditing the attainment of income targets in each project-area village, and for affirming that all THPC’s social entitlements and environmental obligations have been met.
From the beginning of the expansion project until the end of 2013, THPC spent around US$60 million on a broad range of initiatives designed to share the benefits of the project with local people and to minimize disruption to local ecologies. For those people most affected, the Company has built improved housing and public facilities such as clinics, schools, roads, electricity and water supply. THPC also offers livelihood programs to help people improve agricultural and business opportunities plus social assistance including nutritional and sanitation components.
At the beginning of 2014, the Company approved an additional US$50 million of funding for social and environmental programs to be implemented over the following five years.