Education Project for Sudanese Community

Petrofac Facilities Management, which has a contract in Sudan with the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), is working on an education project with the local community.

The Al Shawa Primary School, two-&-a-half hours’ drive north of Khartoum, was established in 1959. Most of the school was destroyed by a flash flood in 1998, which forced the local inhabitants to move elsewhere for their education.

The Association of Alshiakh Abdallh Gadllah (AAAG), which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the local population with particular attention to education, rebuilt two new classrooms in 2002 for the 120 pupils aged between five and 12 years old.

Working with AAAG, Petrofac has helped to fund and build an extra classroom for fifth-year standard students, which was finished in July. Petrofac is also planning to provide computers and training to educational institutions in Khartoum.

Manivannan Rajapathy, project director at Petrofac Facilities Management, organised the community project and says: “Working with AAAG, we are really making a difference to the local community here. It is very satisfying to be involved in an educational project such as this, which has long-term benefits for the local population. We look forward to developing this relationship further.”

The facilities management contract with GNPOC commenced in April 2004 and achieved one million manhours without lost-time incident in February this year. The project covers all routine maintenance, breakdown, overhaul and support requirements to ensure power generation and pumping equipment availability to produce and export Sudan’s oil along a 1,500km pipeline.