Social commitment

Concrete donation to Bartley Christian Church and Ramakrishna Mission
Around 160 m3 of concrete was needed to build a slab over a wide canal that runs across in the backyard of Bartley Church and the front yard of RamakrishnaMission. Holcim Singapore has the pleasure to donate the concrete and bridge over what was required to createa better space for quality activities and safety especiallyfor the kindergarten's little students.

Bartley Christian Church
Founded 47 years ago, Bartley Christian Church is a missional church thatcarries the plan to send out 200 missionaries over the next ten years and to bring spiritual food to the community. Bartley Christian Church managed to expand its structure now capable of seating nearly 1,600 people through fund raising since August 2006. The church rebuilt the premises to the optimized use of the space it has occupied since the 1970s.

Ramakrishna Mission
Ramakrishna Mission is a world-wide spiritual and welfare organization, whichaims at the harmony of religions and all-round development of human faculties,social equality and peace for all humanity, without any distinctions of creed,caste, race or nationality. The Mission has 171 centres all over world of which 126 centres are in India. The Singapore centre of the Ramakrishna Mission was started in 1928 and is regarded one of the pioneers of welfare organizations in Singapore. At present the Mission runs a boys' home with 24 boys, a counseling centre, a kindergarten with 500 children, a homeopathy centre, Sunday Yoga class with 230 students apart from regular spiritual activities.

Community's Response
Swami Satyalokananda (Manager of Sarada Kindergarden)
We are very grateful to Holcim to donating a good quantity of concrete to build a drain cover not only for the Mission but also for Bartley Christian Church. This cover helps our bus services for our kindergarten children. It also helps us to maximize the usage of our land as two separated lands, which were separated by monsoon drain previously, were connected by this cover. Apart from these on Sundays the cover is used as a parking area for Yoga class students and also devotees of Bartley Church.

Alice Winata (Vice Principal of Sarada Kindergarten)
The concrete slab will be used for drop off and pick up point for our Kindergarten children . Now our children will be walking shorter distance and fewer staircases. Since this concrete slab is not part of our main pathway, there will be less traffi c and it will reduce the risk of children being knocked by other vehicles.During off peak time, we possibly can use the concrete for outdoor learning (provided it is not too hot). For example, children can do observation; they can have snack; we can consider to having campfi re for our K2. Thus, it can serve multi-purpose outdoor area.

William Lee (Senior Pastor of Bartley Christian Church)
I am very thankful to Holcim for their generous contribution of concrete for the covering over of the open drainage canal at our site as well as Ramakrishna site. This has transformed the open canal to usable space for us to use for activities that has benefi ted the community. Our members as well as residents in the community around us can now park their cars at the place so that they do not clog up the main road. We have also allowed youths in the community to come to our premises for studies and to use the slab over canal to have their sports and recreation time. It has also helped in keeping the place safe for our children without the worry of the big open drainage canal posing a safety or health hazard. We are extremely thankful to Holcim for being such a civic conscious company willing to go the extra mile to contribute towards the betterment of the community.