Corporate social responsibility picks up in Kuwait

During Kuwait's first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards event, The Kuwait Project Company (Kipco) won an award for its public awareness campaign on dyslexia.

The campaign, which featured TV and press advertising, highlighted the problems faced by those suffering from dyslexia, a condition affecting almost 10 per cent of Kuwait's population.

'I'm delighted that Kipco has won this award, because the awards themselves reflect the heightened awareness of Kuwait's private sector on its collective responsibility towards our community,' said Abdullah Bishara, Vice Chairman of Kipco.

Kipco is allocating one per cent of its annual profits to fund charitable projects. 'A strategic CSR programme is a long-standing element of Kipco's business strategy. This was demonstrated more than 10 years ago by the establishment of our Masharea Al Khair charity - an organisation dedicated to managing and allocating funds for charitable projects,' added Al Khair.

CSR programmes are often used by companies not just to give something back to the society where they are based, but also as a way of boosting staff morale, who volunteer their time.
Also winning an award at the Kuwait CSR event was Paragon Marketing Communications, for its dedication to the reinforcement of social values and for its services to Kuwaiti society.

'We have always succeeded in leading the initiative towards the commencement of positive change in our community, through a continuous, strategic non-profit awareness programme launched at the company's inception more than six years back, as part of our business strategy,' said Marzouk Jassem Al Marzouk, CEO of Paragon.