AVIC International takes pride in impact of its projects across Kenya

AVIC International Holding Corporation (AVIC INTL), which has been operational in Kenya since 1994, has left an indelible mark in the country with life-changing projects targeting local communities.

The company’s footprints are visible in all areas where it has operated with mega-corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects uplifting communities.

AVIC INTL, a global share-holding company, is active in four business areas: aviation, high-end manufacturing, overseas public services, and services and trade. The corporation has six domestic and overseas listed companies and has established branches in 60 countries and regions.

A CSR report released by the company shows how it has managed to leave a positive impression in any of the areas where it has a project.

The company also takes pride in the upgrade of 144 vocational training institutions across Kenya and training 1,500 teachers and over 50,000 students as well as support staff.

The projects included constructing three accesses and one leveling (access to water, electricity and road, and leveled ground), campsite construction, and equipment relocation.

 It has also helped repair and upgrade damaged local roads, built water conservancy facilities, and shared clean water sources with the community, and renovated and constructed school buildings and other community facilities for free.

Among other initiatives started by the company, which were not part of its contracts, is the ambitious Africa Tech Challenge (ATC), one of the series of activities themed “Love Kenya”.

The program, with support from the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, is planned, initiated, and fully funded by AVIC INTL, and jointly hosted with the Ministry of Education of Kenya.

It targets the problems that African governments are concerned about such as the lack of vocational skills and the high unemployment rate of the youth.

By means of hosting vocational skill training and competition, the ATC aims to improve the skills of local young people, promote the integration of teaching and industrial chains, and create a new model for Chinese enterprises to perform CSR in foreign countries.

The ATC Competition has been held seven times successfully since 2014. It covers vocational skills in several professional fields, and rewards the winning institutions with “orders from China” to improve the integration of teaching and industrial chains and to realize the vision of “Made in Africa”.

Excellent students with prominent performances in the contests are rewarded with chances to study in China, and many contestants in the ATC are offered good employment opportunities.

Through their sweat, they improve the living conditions of their families and change their own future in a good way. So far a total of 203 institutions and 701 participants from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Zambia, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania and Ethiopia have joined the ATC competitions.

Among them, nine institutions received a production order of US$500,000 provided by AVIC INTL, which also gave a total of US$62,500 in cash rewards to 99 participants, with 15 obtaining the opportunity to study in China sponsored by the company, and 45 receiving the chance for internships and jobs at the company.

In 2015, China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation (Kenya), a subsidiary of AVIC INTL, undertook the expansion project of Mathari primary school in Nairobi without any profit. The existing school buildings were renovated, and two three-storey teaching buildings and a playground, as well as a series of facilities such as 32 classrooms, offices, assembly halls, basketball courts, canteens, kitchens, and washrooms, were built up.

The new school provided educational opportunities for an additional 1,000 children in the local community as well as employment opportunities for eight teachers, which has won high praise for the company from the local communities.

The days of darkness and unstable electricity supply for the more than 60 orphans and abandoned children at Shiphrah Centre in Mutuini, Dagoretti in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, were put to an end with solar panels donated by AVIC INTL becoming functional on December 9, 2022.

China National Aero-Technology and its collaborator in the Two Rivers project donated US$220,000 in 2017 as a fund to help Kenya overcome the difficulties caused by the extreme drought disasters since 2016.