20 December 2008
“The students learnt a lot and the Programme has great value because people from the village pass over the pipeline every day and students will pass on the information they learnt during the Programme to their parents,” said Mr Salem Al-Hattaf, head teacher of Al-Hait School.

As part of Yemen LNG’s commitment to engage local stakeholders, the Company launched the School Awareness Programme in early November 2008. The 2008 Yemen LNG Schools Awareness Programme is an information-sharing programme that falls within the Public Consultation and Disclosure Plan for the Yemen LNG Project. This Awareness Programme uses theatre and educational activities to convey key information about the Project and the transition to the Operations phase within Yemen LNG to students and adults in the Project affected areas. The Programme emphasises the importance of building a long-term constructive relationship between the Company and communities, while focusing on specific concerns raised by stakeholders from a particular area.

The 2007 Awareness Programme proved to be an effective medium to generate awareness. It adopted an engaging and entertaining approach that relies on audience participation. The 2008 Programme was designed along the same lines as the one implemented in 2007 and has been successfully delivered at 20 schools along the pipeline Right of Way and coastal area near Balhaf during November/December 2008. The response at schools has been very positive: “I really liked the play and especially the character of Tabatum”—a funny character that played the role of a lazy, clumsy son of a farmer from one of the pipeline neighbouring areas. “I learnt a lot about the warning signs placed along the pipeline and how to be safe around the pipeline,” continued Saleh, an 8-year old student from Maghraf School.

“The Programme is gender specific and consists of male and female programmes, individually delivered for boys or for girls. The performances are contextualised within an authentic Shabwani set-up that allows students and adults to identify with characters and the way they respond to the Project and its impacts on their daily lives. Performances are adapted to concerns raised in each village and we have found that adults responded as positively to the content of the Programme as students,” said Programme Coordinator, Marliza Eloff.

The relevance of the key messages, style of delivery and entertainment value proved to communicate to the Balhaf plant construction workers just as well. More than 4,000 workers at the Balhaf construction site gathered on 10, 12 and 14 November to watch a performance entitled “The Light”, a performance delivered as part of the Awareness Programme.

This year’s School Awareness Programme was completed on the 1 December 2008 and provided schools and local audiences in Shabwah with an opportunity to learn about different aspects of the Yemen LNG Project. The cast of well-known Yemeni actors who took part in the road shows as part of the Programme included Yahya Ibrahim and Abdulsalam Zelaat—two very famous Yemeni actors, amongst others. The School Awareness Programme is another innovative method to enhance communication between Yemen LNG and its young neighbouring communities.