D&L Industries, Inc., the parent company of Natura Aeropack Corporation (NAC), is keen on making a positive, direct, and long-lasting impact on the lives of its employees, partner farmers, and the communities that surround its facilities. To this end, D&L and Natura Aeropack work directly with The Lao Foundation, Inc. (LFI) to create better opportunities for the people who need them the most. Part of Natura Aeropack’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) involves working directly with schools and NGOs to help students and their families form lifelong values, access quality education, and find sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Natura Aeropack’s Projects with LFI
Through its connection to LFI, Natura Aeropack has married its advocacies of sustaining the planet and upholding Filipino talent and industriousness to the world by providing indirect educational scholarships to students in need. Natura Aeropack’s scholarship and outreach programs primarily take place in local communities where D&L facilities are located.
In the short time that Natura Aeropack has been doing its CSR with LFI, both entities from D&L have overseen the awarding of hundreds of educational grants to employee dependents and more than a thousand scholarships to students. To date, hundreds of students have already graduated from the program and launched viable careers of their own.
Natura Aeropack’s E2E Program: How It Works
The Education to Employment or E2E program is a partnership between Natura Aeropack and two schools: the Dualtech Training Center Foundation, Inc., a private vocational school that is focused on training students that come from poor sectors of society, and Don Bosco Educational Centers (DBEC) Philippines, one of the Philippines’ top private Catholic institutions for technical education.
Instituted in 1982, Dualtech is a pioneer in bringing the German Dual Training System to the Philippines. Under this system, high school graduates are equipped with the training and skills they need at the school. At the same time, the students are given the opportunity to learn on the job from partner companies that will eventually employ them.
The Salesian-run Don Bosco programs, on the other hand, are some of the country’s most well-known and well-respected technical-vocational educational training (TVET) schools. To date, DBEC Philippines has presences in provinces like Laguna, Tarlac, Albay, and Pampanga as well as in Metro Manila.
Natura Aeropack’s E2E project has enabled promising students from Dualtech and Don Bosco to apply their skills and technical knowledge in D&L facilities and eventually find gainful employment in the company. In the final quarter of 2022, for instance, 11 Dualtech students sponsored by LFI graduated from the Electromechanics Technology program and were employed in companies under D&L.
Another batch of 24 students, many coming from coconut-farming families, will soon benefit from the partnership between Natura Aeropack, LFI, and the D&L family of companies’ two partner educational institutions. The sponsorship program, which will last 24 months, covers the scholars’ tuition fees, board and lodging, medical checkups, transportation allowances, and uniforms.
Supporting Filipino Scholars and Their Role in a More Sustainable Future
For questions and concerns about our scholarship programs, education to employment opportunities with Dualtech and Don Bosco, and how we uplift the families of Filipino coconut farmers, check out LFI’s Facebook page linked above or contact us on the Natura Aeropack website. We are more than happy to share about how we cultivate our dreams for a sustainable future with people who will benefit from the most: our farmers, who are our partner stakeholders, and their children who will inherit stewardship of our planet.
