Company gives back to the community
Speaking at the ceremony, the CEO for LANXESS Newcastle, Carsten Gerdes highlighted that the key to a successful life is through education and LANXESS regard education as one of its priority for corporate responsibility programmes.
Issued by LANXESS
In the context of its global education initiative, speciality chemicals company LANXESS donated science experimental kits to Ncandu Combined and Phuzukubona schools.
The kits were donated to the two schools on 22-23 May in the presence of LANXESS employees, school principal and head of department, as well as Department of Education district officials.
During the hand-over ceremony, two scientists from LANXESS demonstrated to teachers and pupils how to use the kits.
Speaking at the ceremony, the CEO for LANXESS Newcastle, Carsten Gerdes highlighted that the key to a successful life is through education and LANXESS regard education as one of its priority for corporate responsibility programmes.
“By donating these kits, I believe that this will go a long way in nurturing and shaping the learners’ mind to become engineers and scientists one day. At LANXESS we understand the importance of education and this initiative goes without any doubt that the company cares about the educational development of children around the community in which we operate in,” said Mr Gerdes.
“These kits are not only portable, but they are also convenient for schools like this which do not have science rooms or laboratories. This initiative is part of LANXESS’s worldwide project, through which 1000 chemistry kits have been donated to elementary schools and educational institutions located close to LANXESS sites,” he further explains.
“We are very grateful for the work which LANXESS is doing and these kits are going to be very helpful to our learners. Our curriculum require our learners to do two science experiments per year and every year we send our learners to the company to do practicals and now that we have our own kits, there won’t be a need to transport them out of the school premises,” said Acting Principal of Ncandu Combined School, Mr B.E Kubheka.
Each chemistry kit consists of an experiment case, a box with additional equipment and instruction manuals. The manuals give descriptions and instructions for conducting ten different experiments. These experiments designed by LANXESS, in cooperation with the Department of Teaching and Didactics of Chemistry at the Technical University of Dortmund/Germany, are completely safe and focus primarily on the solubility of substances in water.
LANXESS launched its global education initiative in 2008.
The speciality chemicals company has so far invested more than 6-million Euros in Germany alone in the campaign.
The money was used for a number of purposes, including the provision of new laboratory facilities, technical equipment and teaching materials for Chemistry, Biology, Physics and IT classes. In addition, the company has organised many practical workshops for both school children and teachers.
LANXESS has sales of 8.3-billion Euros in 2013 and roughly 17 300 employees in 31 countries.
The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and speciality chemicals.
LANXESS is a member of the leading sustainability indices, Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) World and FTSE4Good, as well as the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI).
