OOCL Helps to Provide Safe Drinking Water to India

OOCL always embraces "Community Responsibility" as one of its core values and will take every opportunity to practice good citizenship in the communities in which it operates.

Recently, OOCL has demonstrated this commitment by sponsoring all the transportation facilities and assisting in all the customs clearance for moving a water filtration unit from Charleston (USA) to Tuticorin (India) in order to provide sustainable safe drinking water to students of a school in Tamil Nadu, India and its surrounding area.

The Water Filtration Unit was loaded for Shipment (L-R) George Greene IV, Vice President for International Programs for Water Missions Internatinal;  Wilson Baker, OOCL Charleston Export Supervisor; Lou Mello, Fondation Chair and Incoming President of the Mt Pleasant Rotary Club and OOCL Customer Service Manager; Bob Barton, Board Director for the Mt Pleasant Rotary Club; Bill Smyth, Curriculum Coordinator for Charleston School of the Arts and Advisor to Vasanth, he has also gone to India to help Vasanth setting up the unit; Vasanth Kuppuswamy, Morgan Futch, General Manager MDS Charleston

The project was the idea of Vasanth Kuppuswamy, a 17-year-old student of Academic Magnet High School, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, who has been visiting the Tamil Nadu school each summer for the last five years and raising funds to pay for the various needs of the school and the students, including desks, uniforms, ceiling fans and science lab equipment. In addition he was able to purchase 4 acres of land adjacent to the school for building a basketball court. Raising funds to set up a water filtration system to provide sustainable safe drinking water to the students of the school was his latest project.

The Rotary Club of Mt Pleasant provided a grant of $2,000 towards the purchase of a water filtration unit from Water Missions International in Charleston, SC, USA. The Rotary Club's Foundation Chair and incoming President for the year 2007-2008, Mr. Lou Mello is also the Customer Service Manager of OOCL's Charleston Office. When Lou told the company about the project of Vasanth, OOCL embraced this opportunity as a part of our community responsibility and provided the transportation and shipping of the container to India at no additional costs.

Under the coordination of OOCL Logistics, Charleston & India Offices, a 20 foot container was deployed and the water filtration equipment which can purify 10,000 gallons a day of safe drinking water arrived India on July 11, 2007. The unit was successfully set up at the school and pure drinking water was available on July 21.

Shipment arrived India      Prathap Singh,Tuticorin branch manager of OOCL (India) released the shipment to Arunkumar, brother of Vasanth Kuppuswamy	The filtration Unit in the container

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. Headquartered in Hong Kong, OOCL is one of the world's leading container transport and logistics service providers, with more than 230 offices in 58 countries. Linking Asia, Europe, North America, the Mediterranean, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and Australia/New Zealand, the company offers transportation services to all major east/west trading economies of the world. OOCL is one of the leading international carriers serving China, providing a full range of logistics and transportation services throughout the country. It is also an industry leader in the use of information technology and e-commerce to manage the entire cargo process. Website: www.oocl.com